Members of California’s Sikh trucking community say a deadly crash involving one of its own, which triggered heated national debates over immigration, has led to a spike in anti-Sikh rhetoric.

On Aug. 12, Harjinder Singh, an India-born truck driver, made a u-turn on the Florida Turnpike that authorities say caused a crash that killed three people. The crash and subsequent investigations stirred arguments between Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

It also sparked online vitriol denigrating members of the monotheistic religion, who often covet high-paying trucking jobs that allow Sikh men to wear beards, uncut hair and turbans.

“There are a lot of negative comments online,” said Prahb Singh, a truck driver in Riverside, Calif,, who isn’t related to the driver.

None of the people named in this story are in the same family; Singh is a common last name among Sikhs.

“People are saying: ‘Take the towel heads off the streets’ and ’Make our roads safe by taking immigrants off the street,’” said Singh, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from India at age eight. “All of this before a judge gives a sentence. It was a mistake by a driver, not the whole community.”

Estimates of the Sikh population in the U.S. range up to 750,000, with the largest concentration in California. Many work in the trucking industry and related businesses, including restaurants and trucking schools along major routes.

Worries about being unfairly targeted

“I’ve been talking to a lot of truck drivers, and they’ve been saying, ‘People look at us different now,’” said Sukhpreet Waraich, a trucker who owns an interstate freight carrier in Fontana, Calif.

A father of three and his family’s breadwinner, he worries about being unfairly targeted. Like other Sikhs, he lamented the Florida crash, calling it a tragedy. But he hopes the driver gets a fair trial and wants people to understand it’s an isolated crash.

“I’ve been driving since 2019. I haven’t got a single ticket,” Waraich said.

150,000 Sikh truckers in U.S.

The North American Punjabi Truckers Association estimates that the Sikh workforce makes up about 40% of truck driving on the West Coast and about 20% nationwide. No official figures exist, CEO Raman Dhillon said, but advocacy groups estimate about 150,000 Sikh truck drivers work in the U.S. That number could be as high as 250,000, given the high demand for drivers post-pandemic, he said.

Since the fatal crash, the association has received numerous reports of Sikh drivers being harassed. In one instance, Dhillon said, a Sikh man was ejected from an Oklahoma truck stop when he tried to take a shower.

In Florida, Harjinder Singh faces manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges, and is being held without bond. Florida authorities say he entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2018. However, California officials say federal authorities told them he was in the country legally with a work permit when the state issued him a driver’s license.

The Trump administration said Singh should have never received a commercial driver’s license because of his immigration status and because he failed an English proficiency test after the crash. But New Mexico officials released a video of a traffic stop that showed Singh communicating in English with an officer.

Scapegoats in immigration fight

DeSantis sent Florida’s lieutenant governor to California to oversee the handover of the truck driver, saying Singh should never have been behind the wheel and calling him a “thug.”

“The sheriff’s job is done by the lieutenant governor,” whose name calling “was very low,” Dhillon said.

Others in the Sikh trucking industry worry about becoming scapegoats in the country’s bitter fight over immigration.

“This is a tragedy; it was an accident, and every Punjabi, every Sikh, feels for the victims’ family,” said Harsimran Singh, CEO of Gillson Trucking in Stockton, Calif, who is not related to the driver.

“But the way that this case has been handled … has many, many people in my community fear for their future in this country.”

Drivers quitting

Since the crash, he said five of his Sikh drivers quit, telling him they no longer feel safe.

In a sign of support, the United Sikhs advocacy group recently held a gathering outside the Florida jail. They prayed for the victims of the crash and offered to help families with the cost of funeral arrangements, while they condemned anti-Sikh discrimination.

“Many immigrants have settled here, fleeing religious and other persecution, and we value the equal opportunity afforded to them by our legal system,” said Gurvinder Singh, the group’s international humanitarian aid director, who is also unrelated to the driver.

Sikhism was founded more than 500 years ago in India’s Punjab region. It is among the world’s largest religions with about 25 million followers.

Discrimination after 9/11

For many years, Sikh migrants from Punjab — once India’s breadbasket — have been moving abroad in search of better opportunities. Fragile farm incomes and scarce jobs have driven the more recent exodus. The vast Sikh diaspora reinforces the belief that migration, legal or illegal, is the surest path to stability.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, young Sikhs in the U.S. have faced discrimination — ranging from school bullying to racial profiling and hate crimes — especially against men with beards and turbans.

At his gurdwara — a Sikh house of worship — in Fremont, Calif., Jasdeep Singh heard reports of children being bullied at school since the crash.

Bolstering trucking industry

“The whole community has been put on trial because we’re so visible,” he said.

“It was always there but now it’s on another level. In 9/11, they thought we were Muslims,” he said about crimes where attackers said they mistook Sikhs for Arab Muslims. “But this time, there’s no confusion. If you ask me, it’s worse.”

In California’s Central Valley, generations of Sikhs have taken pride in bolstering the U.S. trucking industry.

The jobs are crucial to the community. Financially, they help Sikh immigrants provide for their families and send their children to college, said Manpreet Kaur, education director for the Sikh Coalition. Trucking also allows Sikhs to practice their faith more freely, she said.

Fear of losing freedom

“There’s a certain agency that is afforded to an individual, especially for those who might be wearing a turban, keeping their unshorn beards, that is not available in the ordinary workplace,” said Kaur, whose father became a trucker in California in the 1970s.

“You’re able to, for example, park and pray,” she said. “The community has a fear of losing that (freedom) with the negative rhetoric that is coming out.”

Beyond the rhetoric, she hopes people can understand “there’s also another story, another existence of a community that lives and thrives and is really the backbone of the American trucking industry.”

The Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh advocacy group in the U.S., is mourning the lost lives in Florida while hoping the driver gets a fair trial. Coalition executive director Harman Singh also flagged growing concerns the crash is being used to “demonize” the entire Sikh community.

Hate crimes

Recent FBI data, he said, shows Sikhs remain one of the most targeted religious groups in the country for hate crimes.

“Anytime an incident like this occurs and we hear and see heightened rhetoric targeting the community, targeting people’s articles of faith, suggesting that our community is somehow uniquely lawless or criminal, that ends up resulting in increased violence,” he said.

The coalition has been reaching out to Sikh truckers to ensure they know their rights if stopped by authorities. “We want to make sure that there’s legal proceedings and a process there to make sure that the family receives justice,” he said.

“But that should happen through the courtroom. It shouldn’t happen through headlines. It shouldn’t happen on social media. And it certainly shouldn’t happen with very divisive rhetoric about a community at large.”

— This article by The Canadian Press first appeared Sept. 5