SALDEF in the News
Trump Administration Issues New Rule Banning Asylum for People Arriving at U.S.-Mexico Border, Including Thousands of Indians
The rule states that those who have passed through another country before reaching the U.S. must apply for asylum in that country, and are ineligible for applying for asylum in the U.S. According to rough estimates from the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, in 2018, an estimated 9,000 people from India arrived by foot on the U.S.-Mexico border, seeking asylum. SALDEF’s Media and Communications Director, Gujari Singh added that “This will definitely impact Indians coming through the Southern border, The assumption will be that they came through a second country. They will immediately be rejected.”
Recent News
Major ICE raids didn’t materialize over the weekend, advocates say
Immigrant rights advocates across the United States told CNN they saw few signs over the weekend of the ICE raids that Trump administration officials had warned would begin Sunday. As of Sunday evening, there also weren’t any confirmed reports of migrants being apprehended in Baltimore, Chicago or New York, immigrant advocacy groups in those cities told CNN. The American Civil Liberties Union of New York said earlier on Twitter that it had received “some reports of ICE at subway stations, but none have been substantiated.”
USA Sikh Children Get Leadership Lessons at a Summer camp
Guru Gobind Singh Foundation (GGSF) organized Camp Gurmat, which included over 105 Sikh youth at a week-long camp held in Maryland, USA. The youth were given leadership training based on Guru Nanak’s principles of a meaningful life. Hargurpreet Singh added that “These camps provide a safe and stimulating environment for Sikh kids to see themselves as change agents.”
Online discrimination linked to real-life hate crimes
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s data shows that hate crimes have been on the rise across the country since 2014. A recent study found that “the greater the proportion of targeted tweets, the more hate crimes were occurring in the city…The association between online and offline hate held up even when taking into account the differences in population size, crime rates, and location of all 100 cities.”
What it feels like to be told ‘Go back where you came from’
Sikh Scholar of Religion, Simran Jeet Singh writes on how President Trump recently publicly posted a series of tweets targeting four women of color who are first-term members of Congress: Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In the tweets, the President suggested that the four women “go back to where you came from.”
‘Lost track of the number of times I’ve been called a towelhead’
New Jersey Attorney General, Gurbir Grewal tells The Times of India in an interview of the multiple accounts of discrimination he has faced due to this turban. Grewal added that he is “working hard to combat the rising tide of hate in this country.”