The teen's lawyer says he's never seen a case like it in 28 years in immigration law. Video / Cameron Pitney
Daman Kumar, 18, faces deportation to India despite being born in New Zealand.
His lawyer, Alastair McClymont, calls the decision a “disgrace” and urges compassion from immigration officials.
The Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March is advocating for Kumar to be granted a residency visa.
An 18-year-old born in New Zealand has been told to leave or face deportation to India – a country he’s never been to – in a case his lawyer calls a “disgrace” of a magnitude he hasn’t witnessed in 28 years of practice.
Daman Kumar has been told to leavethe country by Monday or he’ll be issued with a deportation order.
That’s despite his 22-year-old sister Radhika Kumar being allowed to stay here lawfully because she was born before changes to the Citizenship Act in 2006.
The siblings’ parents have lived here around 24 years as overstayers. They have also been threatened with deportation.
Daman Kumar (18, right) and his 22-year-old sister Radhika (left) were both born in New Zealand. Daman is being threatened with deportation.
Daman Kumar told the Herald he wants immigration officials to allow him to remain in New Zealand – a country he calls home – so he can start university and continue to contribute to society.
“This is my home and my country. I feel a very deep connection to this country as I’ve been here my whole life and all I ask is that I’m given a chance,” he told the Herald.
Kumar said he’d have no idea how to find a job in India given a lack of connections there and inability to read and write Punjabi.
“If I go to India, they’re just setting me up for failure.”
He hasn’t spoken publicly about his plight before and never mentioned his background to friends because he wanted to be treated as an equal among his peers while going through school.
“I never told anyone, but they’ve treated me as a normal person, as a normal human being in this country, as a Kiwi.”
His sister, Radhika, said the situation threatens to “rip the family apart”.
“I find that quite unfair because our whole life we’ve grown up together. I believe that the minister should definitely give my parents and my brother a chance, especially my brother, since it’s definitely not his fault,” she said.
She said the family have tried to appeal to authorities by sending a “special direction” request to Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk, which was turned down by his officials.
Lawyer Alastair McClymont is appealing for immigration officials to reverse its decision to deport his client Daman Kumar to India – a country he's never visited.
Lawyer Alastair McClymont, who’s working pro bono for the family, said Daman is blameless but is now faced with being labelled a criminal.
“I think every single Kiwi in this country would be absolutely horrified that this sort of thing is happening,” he said.
He said in other similar cases he’s come across, government officials have shown sympathy.
He likened the situation to US President Donald Trump’s hardline policy targeting immigrants.
“Now we have the actual Minister of Immigration saying, no, we’re going to deport him to a foreign country. I’ve never come across that before in 28 years, and I’m really worried about the way that the system is now working when we see what’s happening in the United States.”
McClymont called the situation an “absolute disgrace” and felt any compassion within the immigration system appeared to have been lost.
Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk.
An Immigration NZ (INZ) document seen by the Herald declined a request for ministerial intervention.
“They are in New Zealand unlawfully and must depart at the earliest opportunity,” an INZ decision-maker said.
A spokeswoman for Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk told the Herald the matter was “operational”.
INZ’s general manager of investigations and compliance, Steve Watson, acknowledged the difficult situation Daman, his sister and his mother, Sunita Devi, were faced with.
He said children born in New Zealand after January 1, 2006 automatically hold the most favourable visa status of their parents.
“Because Devi was unlawfully in New Zealand at the time of Daman’s birth, he therefore inherits her immigration status as being unlawfully in New Zealand,” he said.
He said INZ had already extended the deadline for the family to leave twice.
Daman Kumar is still hoping an avenue will be made available for him and his family to stay in New Zealand, where he has aspirations of starting university to study webpage design and information technology.
Green Party immigration spokesman Ricardo Menéndez March said New Zealand is “all Daman knows” and he has no connection to India.
He told the Herald he’s writing to Minister Penk to ask him to intervene and reconsider the case.
“The minister here has an opportunity to do the right thing and grant a residency class visa [to Daman] alongside his family so that they can stay in the country that they belong to,” he said.
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won the best coverage of a major news event at the 2024 Voyager NZ Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald’s video team in July 2024.
