A lethal crash, a divided nation: Why Sikh truckers at the moment are within the crossfire

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO, Related Press

Members of California’s Sikh trucking neighborhood say a lethal crash involving certainly one of its personal, which triggered heated nationwide debates over immigration, has led to a spike in anti-Sikh rhetoric.

It additionally sparked on-line vitriol denigrating members of the monotheistic faith, who typically covet high-paying trucking jobs that enable Sikh males to put on beards, uncut hair and turbans.

“There are a lot of negative comments online,” stated Prahb Singh, a truck driver in Riverside, California, who isn’t associated to the motive force.

Not one of the individuals named on this story are in the identical household; Singh is a standard final title amongst Sikhs.

“People are saying: ‘Take the towel heads off the streets’ and ’Make our roads safe by taking immigrants off the street,” stated Singh, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from India at age 8. “All of this before a judge gives a sentence. It was a mistake by a driver, not the whole community.”

Sikhs play main function in US trucking business

Estimates of the Sikh inhabitants within the U.S. vary as much as 750,000, with the biggest focus in California. Many work within the trucking business and associated companies, together with eating places and trucking faculties alongside main routes.

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

Sikh truck driver Prahb Singh fills up the tank of his truck at a gasoline station in Fontana, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photograph/Jae C. Hong)

Sikh driver Jagdeep Singh parks his truck at a Cheema Freightlines facility on the finish of his shift Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, in Lathrop, Calif. (AP Photograph/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

A truck driver arrives at a Cheema Freightlines facility in Lathrop, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photograph/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Vans refuel at a gasoline station in Fontana, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photograph/Jae C. Hong)

Sikh truck driver Prahb Singh fills up the tank of his truck at a gasoline station in Fontana, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photograph/Jae C. Hong)

Harsimran Singh, proprietor of Gillson Trucking, walks by means of his lot in Stockton, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photograph/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Freight vans journey northbound on Interstate 5 Freeway, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, in Tracy, Calif. (AP Photograph/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Freight vans journey northbound on Interstate 5 Freeway, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, in Tracy, Calif. (AP Photograph/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Sikh truck driver Prahb Singh maneuvers his truck at a gasoline station in Fontana, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photograph/Jae C. Hong)

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Sikh truck driver Prahb Singh fills up the tank of his truck at a gasoline station in Fontana, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photograph/Jae C. Hong)

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A father of three and his household’s breadwinner, he worries about being unfairly focused. Like different Sikhs, he lamented the Florida crash, calling it a tragedy. However he hopes the motive force will get a good trial and needs individuals to know it’s an remoted crash.

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

The North American Punjabi Truckers Affiliation 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 stated, however advocacy teams estimate about 150,000 Sikh truck drivers work within the U.S. That quantity could possibly be as excessive as 250,000, given the excessive demand for drivers post-pandemic, he stated.

For the reason that deadly crash, the affiliation has obtained quite a few studies of Sikh drivers being harassed. In a single occasion, Dhillon stated, a Sikh man was ejected from an Oklahoma truck cease when he tried to take a bathe.

Deadly Florida crash and partisan politics

In Florida, Harjinder Singh faces manslaughter and vehicular murder prices, and is being held with out bond. Florida authorities say he entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2018. Nevertheless, California officers say federal authorities informed them he was within the nation legally with a piece allow when the state issued him a driver’s license.

The Trump administration stated Singh ought to have by no means obtained a industrial driver’s license due to his immigration standing and since he failed an English proficiency take a look at after the crash. However New Mexico officers launched a video of a visitors cease that confirmed Singh speaking in English with an officer.

DeSantis despatched Florida’s lieutenant governor to California to supervise the handover of the truck driver, saying Singh ought to by no means have been behind the wheel and calling him a “thug.”

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

Others within the Sikh trucking business fear about turning into scapegoats within the nation’s bitter battle over immigration.

“This is a tragedy; it was an accident, and every Punjabi, every Sikh, feels for the victims’ family,” stated Harsimran Singh, CEO of Gillson Trucking in Stockton, California, who will not be associated to the motive force.

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

For the reason that crash, he stated 5 of his Sikh drivers give up, telling him they not really feel protected.

In an indication of help, the UNITED SIKHS advocacy group just lately held a gathering exterior the Florida jail. They prayed for the victims of the crash and provided to assist households with the price of funeral preparations, whereas 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,” stated Gurvinder Singh, the group’s worldwide humanitarian assist director, who can be unrelated to the motive force.

Sikhs discover spiritual freedom in trucking

Sikhism was based greater than 500 years in the past in India’s Punjab area. It’s among the many world’s largest religions with about 25 million followers.

For a few years, Sikh migrants from Punjab — as soon as India’s breadbasket — have been shifting overseas in the hunt for higher alternatives. Fragile farm incomes and scarce jobs have pushed the newer exodus. The huge Sikh diaspora reinforces the idea that migration, authorized or unlawful, is the surest path to stability.

For the reason that Sept. 11, 2001, assaults, younger Sikhs within the U.S. have confronted discrimination — starting from faculty bullying to racial profiling and hate crimes — particularly towards males with beards and turbans.

At his gurdwara — a Sikh home of worship — in Fremont, California, Jasdeep Singh heard studies of youngsters being bullied at college for the reason that crash.

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

“It was always there but now it’s on another level. In 9/11, they thought we were Muslims,” he stated about crimes the place attackers stated 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 pleasure in bolstering the U.S. trucking business.

The roles are essential to the neighborhood. Financially, they assist Sikh immigrants present for his or her households and ship their youngsters to school, stated Manpreet Kaur, training director for the Sikh Coalition. Trucking additionally permits Sikhs to apply their religion extra freely, she stated.

“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,” stated Kaur, whose father grew to become a trucker in California within the Seventies.

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

Sikhs fear about rhetoric resulting in violence

Past the rhetoric, she hopes individuals can perceive “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 biggest Sikh advocacy group within the U.S., is mourning the misplaced lives in Florida whereas hoping the motive force will get a good trial. Coalition govt director Harman Singh additionally flagged rising issues the crash is getting used to “demonize” the whole Sikh neighborhood.

Current FBI information, he stated, reveals Sikhs stay one of the focused spiritual teams within the nation 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 stated.

The coalition has been reaching out to Sikh truckers to make sure 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 stated. “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.”

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Related Press writers Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Rajesh Roy in New Delhi contributed.

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Related Press faith protection receives help by means of the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely chargeable for this content material.