The letter, sent Aug. 1 and first reported by The Intercept and the nonprofit newsroom Arizona Luminaria, claims 64 such cases have been reported to the Border Patrol’s Yuma sector so far this year — mostly in the past two months — of Sikh asylum seekers who were released from detention and sought help at a reception center in Phoenix. Sikhism is the fifth largest world religion, according to the Sikh Coalition, and there are more than 500,000 Sikh Americans. Devout Sikhs 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 to cover heads out of respect when in public and religious spaces.”By confiscating and failing to return Sikh turbans, CBP is directly interfering with their religious practice and forcing them to violate their religious beliefs .” The ACLU’s letter states, highlighting the importance of the agency’s policy that requires officers to “remain aware of an individual’s religious beliefs while conducting an enforcement action with dignity and respect.” “We’re talking about Sikh immigrants who leave their countries because of religious persecution…they make a very traumatic journey to the United States, and upon entering they’re forced to take away a sacred part of their religion, a core tenet of their belief system,” he says. Vanessa Pineda, immigrant rights attorney for the ACLU of Arizona; Partner organizations that work directly with migrants have reported that the turbans of Sikh asylum seekers have been taken, Pineda said. The practice is “dehumanizing and degrading,” he told CNN.
CBP says it has opened an internal investigation
The CBP commissioner told CNN in a statement that an investigation is underway. “We take allegations of this nature very seriously,” Magnus said in a statement provided to CNN. “This issue was raised in June and immediate action was taken to address the situation. We expect CBP officers to treat all immigrants we encounter with respect. An internal investigation has been initiated to address this matter.” The agency says it is providing additional guidance to field leadership “reiterating the expectation that staff will exercise special care when handling items of a religious nature.” It also says the agency’s procedures allow its staff to dispose of items “that present a clear risk to health or safety.” In their letter, ACLU representatives said they saw little evidence of concrete action after the issue was raised at meetings in June and July. “We continue to see it happen … All the local efforts that our partner agencies have put in, there’s been no change. And in fact, there’s been an increase in the last two months,” Pineda said. It’s possible the actual number of people affected is higher, Pineda said, noting that rights groups are only aware of self-reported incidents.
Migrants from many countries appear at the border
News of the alleged violations comes as an increasing number of migrants from around the world cross the US-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 vast 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, arriving at the border and having to be processed and there’s so many of them that it’s a challenge for the workforce,” Yuma Border Patrol said. Chief Chris Klemm told CNN last month, noting that up to 1,000 immigrants are being apprehended daily. Last year Yuma’s mayor issued a local emergency order in response to the growing number of immigrants crossing there. In 2019, advocates told CNN they were seeing more immigrants. from India, including Sikhs, come to the US-Mexico border and seek asylum. CNN’s Manveena Suri, Huizhong Wu and Harmeet Kaur contributed to this report.