US probes reports of Sikh turbans being confiscated at Mexico border
Darpan News Desk IANS, 04 Aug, 2022 11:04 AM
Washington, Aug 4 (IANS) US authorities have said investigations were underway into reports that turbans of Sikh asylum seekers were confiscated after they were detained at the country's border with Mexico, the media reported.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nearly 50 Sikh migrants have had their turbans taken away, the BBC reported.
It said that the turban confiscations "blatantly violate federal law" and are inconsistent with the US Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) own non-discrimination policies.
In a letter sent to CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus on August 1, the ACLU called the seizures "ongoing, serious religious-freedom violations".
Meanwhile, Vanessa Pineda, a lawyer of the ACLU of Arizona, told the BBC that no proper explanation has been given about what, if any, security concerns a turban could raise.
"It's just not acceptable. They need to find another alternative and to stop this. It's dehumanising," she added.
In response, Magnus said the border agency expects its staff to "treat all migrants we encounter with respect", the BBC reported citing A Washington Post report.
"An internal investigation has been opened to address this matter," the CBP Commissioner was quoted as saying.
According to CBP statistics, nearly 13,000 Indian citizens, including many from Punjab, have been detained by Border Patrol officers at the US-Mexico border in the fiscal year that began in October 2021.
Of these, about three-quarters, or nearly 10,000, have been detained in the Border Patrol's Yuma sector, a 202 km expanse of desert and rocky mountains that stretches from California's Imperial Sand Dunes to the border between Arizona's Yuma and Pima counties.
An Indian businessman has been charged in the US with conspiring to smuggle drugs into the country and commit money laundering, an American attorney has said.
An Indian-origin Uber driver in the US has been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $3,642 in restitution and forfeiture for kidnapping a female passenger and dropping her off on an isolated highway.
riya Serrao was born in Belmannu, Karnataka, but spent most of her early childhood in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Serrao moved to Australia when she was 11.
Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, who has also crooned several Bollywood hits including Salman Khan’s Jag Ghoomeya, was presented with the degree of Doctor of Music at a ceremony .
Wesley Mathews, 39, on Monday pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of injury to a child by omission in the Indian girl's death. Authorities had originally charged him for capital murder.
