• Sikh asylum seekers’ turbans were taken away after they were stopped at the US-Mexico border, activists claim.
• The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has stated that the CBP’s own non-discrimination regulations are in conflict with the confiscations of turbans and violate federal law.

US authorities said they are looking into claims that Sikh asylum seekers’ turbans were taken away after they were stopped at the border.

Human rights activists claim that approximately 50 migrants have had their religious headwear confiscated.

Men who practise Sikhism must wear turbans and refrain from shaving their hair.

At the US-Mexico border, detentions of migrants from India have reached record highs recently.

Many come from Punjab, an area of India where Sikhs make up more than half the population.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has stated that the CBP’s own non-discrimination regulations are in conflict with the confiscations of turbans and “blatantly violate federal law.”

It referred to the seizures as “ongoing, egregious religious-freedom breaches” in a letter that was delivered to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Chris Magnus on August 1.

According to attorney Vanessa Pineda of the ACLU of Arizona, no adequate justification has been provided for what, if any, security issues wearing a turban would cause.

She claimed that it is a part of a larger problem in which immigrants’ personal belongings are seized and destroyed without justification or replacement.

It’s simply unacceptable, she continued. “They must halt this and find an other solution. It dehumanises people.”

The CBP’s Mr. Magnus said in a statement that the border agency requires its employees to “treat all migrants we encounter with respect.”

His statement read, “An internal investigation has been initiated to resolve this situation.”

Nearly 13,000 Indian citizens have been detained by Border Patrol agents at the US-Mexico border during the fiscal year that started in October, according to CBP statistics that have been made available online.

In the Yuma sector of the Boundary Patrol, a 202 km (126 mile) stretch of desert and steep mountains that runs from California’s Imperial Sand Dunes to the border between Yuma and Pima counties in Arizona, approximately 7,000 of these individuals have been apprehended. In a high-profile case in 2019, a six-year-old Indian citizen from the Punjab was discovered dead close to the Arizona town of Lukeville.

Authorities later reported that the young child passed away from heatstroke in temperatures over 42 C (108 F), after her mother had abandoned her with another group of refugees to go for water.

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