Key Issues

While we work on Punjabi language access with our collaborators at DHS, we also work to broaden language access across all levels and agencies in the federal government, as well as state-by-state when opportunities arise.

In coalition with our partners, SALDEF strongly advocates for the federal government and all relevant contractors and recipients of federal funds to make Language Services available to LEP Individuals in an equitable fashion. Our key priorities include: 

• The implementation of binding, enforceable guidelines for federal agencies to update their non-English, non-Spanish online user interfaces, taking recommendations from the recently published guide to Improve Access to Website and Digital Services for LEP Individuals.
• The provision of wrap-around services, like interpretation services. Live language assistance should include rapid rates of connection to interpreters via telephone, video, or electronically. 
• Directives for government agencies to collect preferred language data in addition to disaggregating by race/ethnicity, without compromising identifiable data on LEP individuals.
• A government-wide commitment to increasing internal language access capacity, including establishing Language Access Coordinators to work cross-functionally across all services. Investments made in this area must not take away resources from civil rights operators tasked to provide language access services and oversight.

When adjusting for population size, Sikh Americans are among the most targeted minority groups in America in bias and discrimination incidents. This reality creates an urgent need for resources that support the recovery of all those affected by senseless acts of hate. While the 118th Congress is divided, we feel strongly that many issues are still bipartisan and offer possibilities for progress – like the need to combat domestic violence. Our key priorities include:

• Advocating to the offices of members of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus to work to pass bipartisan legislation to raise visibility for mental health care.
• Pushing for mental health reform legislation to specifically fund care for minorities, as in the Pursuing Equity in Mental Health Act and similar legislation introduced in both the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.
• Collaborating with the Office of Victims of Crime in the Department of Justice to ensure that communities struck by tragedy have access to the resources they need to begin the healing process – and that those resources are delivered sensitively and in-language.

A persistent threat to the safety of Sikh Americans nationwide, and for all communities of color, LGBTQ+, and immigrant communities,, is the specter of white supremacy and systemic hate and bias. SALDEF remains committed to working with all stakeholders across all levels of government to root out this danger, with a particular focus on the executive branch. Our key priorities include:

• Securing adequate funding from the Department of Justice to investigate hate crimes, provide sensitive services for victims’ families and communities, and increase community safety collaboratively with local- and state-level stakeholders.
• Urging active participation in the Hate Crimes Statistics Act reporting program, with special attention devoted to large underreporting agencies. In particular, we are pushing the Department of Justice to ensure the nationwide adoption of the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) crime reporting program in 2021.
• Working toward the passage of the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which empowers relevant federal departments to monitor and investigate domestic terrorism and white supremacy within the United States. 

As a diasporic community, Sikh Americans are well positioned to understand the necessity of immigration policies that are humane, equitable, and rooted in compassion. SALDEF works with stakeholders across the federal government and Congress to help shape immigration policies that allow our community to thrive in the United States. Our key priorities include:

• Dedicated Punjabi-language translations of materials pertaining to both the family immigration and asylum processes, distributed online and to asylum seekers in person; as well as the provision of dedicated Punjabi language interpreters for Sikhs detained by any DHS agency.
• Government-wide implementation of a protections-first immigration framework, with its attendant focus on family and community ties, justice, and humanitarian interests; rather than the current enforcement priorities-based framework that redirects bias from one category of immigrants to another based on prevailing political winds.
• Passage in Congress of a path to citizenship for recipients of Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections. We believe very strongly that young immigrants who grew up in the United States, consider themselves to be American, and are productively contributing to society deserve the opportunity to stay in the only home that most of them have ever known.

SALDEF remains concerned about the persistent treatment of Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian Americans as a monolith in public data. The outperformance of some subgroups masks enormous disparities in socioeconomic and educational attainment between different subgroups within the AAPI community. Our key priorities include:

• Disaggregation in key surveys across AAPI subgroups by the Census bureau, like the  Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC), the premier annualized measure of income among domestic-facing federal surveys; as well as the decennial Census.
• Active translation and outreach efforts by statistical agencies to disseminate in-language reporting with community advocates as standard operating procedure. AAPI groups must see and hear the stories these data tell about them, so that they can then be encouraged to participate in the data-gathering at the next opportunity.