ACLU accuses Border Patrol agents of taking turbans from Sikh men

Sikhs have long been targets of US government harassment

US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents in Arizona have spent months harassing Sikh asylum seekers, forcing them to remove their turbans, even though it violates their religion, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Agents have singled out Sikh migrants for “serious religious-freedom violations” at least 64 times in the Yuma border sector in the last two months, according to the legal organisation.

"By confiscating and failing to return Sikh individuals’ turbans, CBP directly interferes with their religious practice and forces them to violate their religious beliefs," the ACLU wrote in a 1 August letter to the agency, pointing to the Border Patrol’s official policy that officers "remain cognizant of an individual’s religious beliefs while accomplishing an enforcement action in a dignified and respectful manner."

Sikh migrants have described humiliating treatment at the border.

“They told me to take off my turban. I know a little English, and I said, ‘It’s my religion.’ But they insisted,” one man told The Intercept, which first reported on the ACLU letter. Agents even insisted on cutting the man’s traditional Sikh underwear, ostensibly for security reasons.

“I felt so bad,” the man said.

US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus said the agency is aware of the allegations and is investigating them.

"We take allegations of this nature very seriously," he said in a statement. "This issue was raised in June and steps were immediately taken to address the situation. Our expectation is that CBP employees treat all migrants we encounter with respect. An internal investigation has been opened to address this matter."

The CBP head said the agency is “reiterating the expectation that personnel exercise particular care when handling property items of a religious nature."

According to observers, however, the CBP has continued harassing Sikhs even after complaints about mistreatment were raised.

"We’re talking about Sikh migrants specifically who are fleeing their countries because of religious persecution...making a very traumatic journey to the United States, and upon entering are then forced to remove a sacred piece of their religion, a core tenet of their belief system," Vanessa Pineda, an immigrants’ rights staff attorney for the ACLU of Arizona, told CNN.

Since 9/11, Sikhs have been the target of harassment across the country, even though no Sikhs were involved in the terror attacks.

As The Independent reported, the first person killed in a post-9/11 hate crime was a Sikh man named Balbir Singh Sodhi who owned a gas station in Arizona. Sodhi was shot by a racist gunman on 15 September, 2001,  the same day the business owner donated to a 9/11 relief fund.

Since then, Sikhs have been the target of other hate incidents, and have also been singled out for placement in immigration databases and invasive screening at US airports.