California’s Punjabi truckers say they’re being harassed after deadly Florida wreck

For 15 years, Sumit Singh transported freight to and from the ports of Los Angeles and across the country.

For the first time, however, the truck driver Sikh Punjabi is now reluctant to leave the state. Three of his colleagues were detained by immigration officers, and new truck horror stories appear in his group of WhatsApp every day.

“Many drivers are afraid right now,” said Singh.

Punjabi drivers say they are harassed after the arrest of Harjinder Singh, 28, a truck driver born in India who would have made a illegal U-turn, causing an accident that killed three people in Florida.

The incident sparked online vitriol against the Sikh community and turned into a political cries on illegal immigration and qualifications and tests of international truck drivers.

The Ministry of Internal Security blames California because the driver accused of provoking the accident obtained his driver’s license and his work permit.

According to the DHS, Harjinder Singh had obtained commercial driving licenses in Washington and California, despite the failure of a master’s degree in English. US Marshals Service said it had illegally entered the United States via Mexico in 2018.

“Just because of a person, the whole community should not be penalized,” said Sumit Singh, the driver. “Drivers do not feel comfortable going on the road.”

He said he heard that Punjabis are now intended for impromptu skill tests at motorways control points and weighing stations.

Most sikhs come from the northern state of Punjab in India. Many turbans wear, which are often in bright colors and linked to cover their uncoupped hair. Their turbans and beards are symbols important to their faith and their culture.

Sukhwinder Singh Sidhu, right, is a member of Stockton Gurdwara and the truck driver.

(IRFAN KHAN / LOS Angeles Times)

Singh is a common surname in the Sikh community, and none of the people mentioned in this story is linked.

Thousands of Sikhs Punjabi truck drivers and operators who form the backbone of US trade feel threatened due to a meticulous examination.

Advocacy groups say that there has been a peak in threats and security problems since the Florida incident.

Truck companies belonging to the Sikh which were already fighting against a slowdown in industry due to the increase in prices are now faced with a new challenge. Drivers do not want to drive on interstate motorways for fear of losing their livelihood due to improved controls.

In the United States, around 750,000 Sikhs Punjabi have around 750,000 sikhs. Among these, around 150,000 work in the trucking industry, with the majority based on the west coast, according to Harman Singh, executive director of the Sikh coalition, the largest organization of Sikhs civil rights in the United States

There is a national network of Sikhs working in areas adjacent to trucking, Indian restaurants to stop trucks in trucking schools and logistics companies.

The culture of trucking is so deep in India as well as in North America, that it generated its own kind of Punjabi music. High energy dance numbers with titles such as “Driver’s Life” and “Trucker”.

This is the most difficult period for decades for the company, said Baldev Khang, 52, director of finance and operations at Fontana Cargo Solutions.

His company has faced a cascade of undesirable events: an overall slowdown in trucking due to increased prices, an additional 50% rate targeting Indian imports, and now its drivers are targeted because they hold California licenses.

“Many drivers do not want to go on the road,” said Khang, using a term that means jobs that require drivers crossing state lines. “They prefer a local job.”

Three of his Sikh truck drivers have been arrested in recent weeks, said Khang. His company operates 1,000 trucks offering freight for Walmart, Amazon and others.

His Somali and Mexican drivers also avoid the roads, he said.

This week, five of his Punjabi drivers have left the fear of being targeted. All those who left resigned valid work permits issued by California, he said, but they were worried after hearing people with California documents were harassed in Oklahoma, Texas and Florida.

Another concern for immigrant truckers has been the English skill test required for business truck drivers.

At the end of April, President Trump published a decree indicating that truckers who cannot speak or read the language with competence are unfit for the service. The order has indicated that understanding the traffic signs, communication with the border patrol or the answer to questions at the control points is necessary to ensure the safety of American roads.

This question resurfaced in the public debate when the Trump administration said that the driver of the Florida accident had failed a skill test in English after the incident.

After the accident, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a freeze on foreign workers visas for commercial truck drivers.

At Sikh places of worship in Stockton, the community has launched English lessons for truck drivers, said Raman Dhillon, CEO of the North America Punjabi Trucking Assn., Which has 2,500 members.

Dhillon said the commercial driving license test system in California is defective and that the application standards of the Clement law in driving schools have led the DMVs to issue licenses too easily to holders of work permit.

“You are crying people right now. You are crying the community right now,” said Dhillon. “Who allowed them to do that? It is your DMV. It is your states.”

Even by striking for the reform, Dhillon Singh criticized Florida politicians, including Lieutenant-Governor Jay Collins, for having qualified Harjinder Singh as “thug” and declared the type of rhetoric surrounding the incident unjustly goat of the Sikh community.

In one case, he remembers, a Sikh driver waiting for a truck stop was harassed, and when he called 911, the cops presented themselves and asked the driver to leave.

“They throw bottles of water on the trucks. They throw eggs on the trucks,” said Dhillon Singh. “This is the whole by-product of what Florida has done with this case.”

Since the Florida affair, the coalition of the organization of civil rights has brought dozens of calls from Sikhs truckers asking for help, some are handing hands to access linguistic resources.

“We fully recognize that it is necessary for common sense safety measures to protect people on the road,” said Harman Singh. “And at the same time, what we want to do is make sure that the roadside inspectors did not take advantage of the Sikh and Punjabi truck drivers, to see you don’t speak English because of their visible articles of faith.”