undocumented immigrants | American Turban

"Guru Hargobind - a painting from the Lahore Museum (courtsey F.Aijazzudin)" (source: sikh-heritage.co.uk)

Seeking those of the Great Liberator

June 25, 2018 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

This month, Sikhs celebrated the appointment of Guru Hargobind as the sixth Guru of the Sikhs in 1606, following the execution of the preceding Guru, Guru Arjun, by the Mughal emperor Jehangir for refusing to convert to Islam. Born to a prophecy that he would crush tyranny, Guru Hargobind represented a metamorphosis for the Sikh people — manifesting more than just spiritual practice but worldly practice as well. The commemoration of his ascension as Guru is a timely coincidence, for […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Politics, Reflections, Sikhism • Tags: Bandi Chhorh Divas, Diwali, Guru Hargobind, ICE, Immigration, Jehangir, miri, piri, undocumented immigrants

Sikh asylum-seekers protest detention in El Paso, TX

December 4, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The website Colorlines provides a report about a protest by 40 asylum-seekers in detention at a facility in El Paso, Texas, operated by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Many of these individuals are of Indian nationality with Sikh names, and they have been incarcerated for months (nod to Meeta Kaur for the link): Colorlines has obtained a document smuggled out of the detention facility that lists 32 Indian men who have passed their credible fear interview but remain in detention […]

Categories: Civil Rights • Tags: Colorlines, El Paso, political asylum, solitary confinement, Texas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, undocumented immigrants

A South Asian undocumented immigrant

November 6, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On The New York Times blog India Ink, Piyali Bhattacharya pens an article about an undocumented South Asian immigrant from Nepal named Nirmal, who left his family to find work in New York (via AnjumChoudhry Nayyar): “There is nothing for me back in Nepal,” he said. “There are no job opportunities there. Better to suffer here and let my child live in peace. Maybe because of me, she will have a better life.” These motivations are not so different from […]

Categories: Profiles, Reflections • Tags: Immigration, India Ink, New York Times, Paramjit Singh, Piyali Bhattacharya, undocumented immigrants

American Turban

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Tag: undocumented immigrants

Seeking those of the Great Liberator

Sikh asylum-seekers protest detention in El Paso, TX

A South Asian undocumented immigrant