Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union condemned what they said were illegal and “serious violations of religious freedom” and asked US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus to investigate.
The letter, sent Aug. 1 and first reported by The Intercept and the nonprofit Arizona Luminaria, alleges that 64 such cases have been reported in the Yuma Sector of the Border Patrol so far this year — mostly in the past two months — by Sikh asylum seekers. who were released from custody and sought help at a reception center in Phoenix. Sikhism is the fifth largest world religion according to the Sikh Coalition and has more than 500,000 Sikh Americans. Devout Sikh men do not cut their hair or shave because they believe that you should maintain your body the way God created you. Turbans are worn as a way of keeping heads covered out of respect when in public and religious spaces. “By confiscating and not returning the turbans of Sikhs, CBP directly interferes with their religious practice and forces them to violate their religious beliefs,” the ACLU letter said, noting the importance of the agency’s policy requiring officers to “remain aware of the individual’s religious beliefs while carrying out coercive action in a dignified and respectful manner’.
“We’re talking specifically about Sikh migrants who are fleeing their countries because of religious persecution … making a very traumatic journey to the United States and upon entry are then forced to remove a sacred part of their religion, a core tenet of their belief system,” says Vanessa Pineda, immigrant rights attorney with the ACLU of Arizona.
Partner organizations that work directly with migrants have reported an increase in the number of turbans being confiscated from Sikh asylum seekers, Pineda said. The practice is “dehumanizing and degrading,” she told CNN.
CBP says an internal investigation has begun
The CBP commissioner told CNN in a statement that an investigation is ongoing.
“We take allegations of this nature very seriously,” Magnus said in a statement released to CNN. “This issue was raised in June and immediate steps were taken to address the situation. It is our expectation that CBP officers treat all migrants we encounter with respect. An internal investigation has been launched to address this matter.”
The agency says it has provided additional guidance to on-site management “reiterating the expectation that staff exercise particular care when handling items of a religious nature.” It also said the agency’s procedures allow its staff to dispose of items “that present a clear health or safety hazard.”
In their letter, ACLU officials said they saw little evidence of concrete action after the issue was raised at meetings in June and July.
“We continue to see this happen … All the grassroots efforts that our partner organizations have made, there has been no change. And there has actually been an increase in the last few months,” Pineda said.
The actual number of people affected may be higher, Pineda said, noting that human rights groups are only aware of self-reported incidents.
Migrants from many countries appear at the border
News of the alleged violations comes as a growing number of migrants from around the world cross the U.S.-Mexico border in the Yuma sector, which stretches 126 miles from the Imperial Sand Dunes in California to the Yuma-Pima county line in Arizona.
For years, the majority of migrants trying to cross the border were from Mexico or Central America.
“The countries that we’re accepting now — these nationalities are flying in, coming to the border and having to be processed, and there’s so many of them that it’s a workforce challenge,” Yuma Border Patrol Sector Chief Chris Klemm told CNN last month , noting that up to 1,000 migrants are detained daily. Last year, the mayor of Yuma issued a local emergency order in response to the growing number of migrants passing through. In 2019, advocates told CNN they were seeing more migrants from India, including Sikhs, coming to the US-Mexico border seeking asylum.
CNN’s Manveena Suri, Huizhong Wu and Harmeet Kaur contributed to this report.
Add Comment