AS Donald Trump administration has escalated the crackdown on illegal immigrants, Law enforcement officials from the US Department of Homeland Security have started visiting Gurdwaras in New York and New Jersey to check for their presence. This has drawn a sharp reaction from some Sikh organisations which see such actions as a threat to the sanctity of their faith.
Some of the Gurdwaras in New York and New Jersey are believed to be used as a hub by Sikh separatists along with illegal and undocumented immigrants, PTI reported.
Within hours of Donald Trump being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman in a directive rescinded the Biden administration’s guidelines for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement actions that thwart law enforcement in or near so-called “sensitive” areas. These “sensitive” areas included places of worship like Gurdwaras and Churches.
Sikhs express grave concern
In a statement, the Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund (SALDF) expressed grave concern over the directive rescinding the guidelines that designated “sensitive areas”, such as houses of worship, where immigration enforcement actions were previously restricted. According to its website, SALDEF is the nation’s oldest Sikh organization focused on building leadership and capacity in the Sikh American community.
“This troubling shift in policy comes in tandem with community reports of DHS agents visiting gurdwaras in the New York and New Jersey areas just days after the directive was issued,” SALDF said.
“We are deeply alarmed by the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to eliminate protections for sensitive areas and then target places of worship like gurdwaras,” said Kiran Kaur Gill, executive director of SALDEF.
Gill further explained that gurdwaras are more than just places of worship; they serve as essential community hubs offering support, food, and spiritual comfort to both Sikhs and other. “Targeting these spaces for enforcement actions threatens the sanctity of our faith and sends a chilling message to immigrant communities nationwide,” Gill said.
The Sikh Coalition said that Trump administration’s decision to rescind the DHS policy on “protected areas” (which also included hospitals, schools, social service providers, and more) opens the door to ICE agents to conduct surveillance, investigations, arrests, and raids at gurdwaras.”
“The idea that our gurdwaras could be subject to government surveillance and raids by armed law enforcement with or without warrants is unacceptable to the Sikh faith tradition. It will burden religious exercise by limiting the ability of Sikhs to gather and associate with one another in accordance with our faith. It also harkens to dark periods in our collective memory when governments interfered in the ability of Sikhs to practice our faith freely—with deadly consequences,” the coalition said. — Agencies