Law enforcement authorities in New York and New Jersey have begun inspecting gurudwaras to identify illegal immigrants amid Donald Trump’s crackdown on irregular migration and mass deportation.
Hours after Donald Trump was sworn-in as US President, acting Department of Homeland security secretary Benjamin Huffman dumped 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.
“This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens—including murders and rapists—who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” department of homeland security said in a statement.
“The Biden-Harris administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country. This was all stopped on day one of the Trump Administration. This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis,” it added.
Meanwhile, Sikh community living in the US saw the action as a threat to the sanctity of their faith and 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.
In a statement, the Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund (SALDF) said, “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.”
“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,” it added.
Sikh coalition said the 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 Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducting 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,” Sikh Coalition said.
“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,” it said.
“If Sikhs-whether documented or undocumented-are concerned with gurdwara raids and surveillance, gurdwaras may well be impacted by decreased attendance, and thus an inability to carry out essential religious practices in a meaningful manner,” said Sikh Coalition.
