January 30, 2025 (Nationwide) — Today, the Sikh Coalition is proud to share our new immigration Know Your Rights materials, developed in consultation with immigration attorneys and immigration policy experts within and beyond our sangat.
Our first new resource is our “Know Your Rights: Immigration and ICE Summary.” Available in English and Punjabi, this simple, one page document covers only essential, high-level guidance and is written in clear language designed to be accessible to as many sangat members as possible. View the Sikh Coalition’s social media pages for a graphic version of this document.
Our second resource is titled “Know Your Rights: Immigration.” This much more comprehensive document walks through an explanation of who enforces immigration policy in the United States, suggestions of what to do if ICE comes to your home or workplace, your rights if ICE attempts to arrest you, resources and best practices in case you or someone you love is detained, immigration status-based harassment, and additional resources. This information will live on our website in a Google Doc so that we can easily update it as policies continue to change; we look forward to publishing a full Punjabi translation soon.
The final resource is titled “Know Your Rights: Immigration Guidance for Gurdwarae.” This document is intended especially for gurdwara leadership and committees. It explores the complexities around when and how ICE can enter gurdwarae and other houses of worship (following a recent Trump Administration policy change), resources and best practices in case a sangat member is detained, suggestions on gurdwara security, and additional resources. Similar to the previous document, it will exist as an easily editable Google Doc and we look forward to offering it in Punjabi soon.
Please note that none of these resources are intended as legal advice. The Sikh Coalition does not provide direct legal aid on immigration cases, but if you are in need, you can contact our legal team and we may be able to offer you a referral. Another useful resource are immigration ‘red cards,’ which can be used to reiterate your rights to ICE agents—especially for households that include undocumented family members; you can request red cards in both English and Punjabi from the Sikh Family Center. The Sikh Coalition will be publishing more resources and sharing more advocacy information in the weeks and months ahead as we scale our immigration work.
As a final note, we condemn media reporting which falsely stated that gurdwarae in New York and New Jersey were visited by ICE to “remove Sikh separatists.” This ‘reporting,’ emerging almost exclusively from Indian media, appeared to originate from unverified reports that were regrettably shared by some Sikh organizations. While these rumored raids did not happen, we are concerned about the possibility of raids or other such intrusions moving forward. We urge Sikh organizations, individuals, and gurdwarae to exercise caution before sharing unverified reports of DHS visits to or of ICE raids at gurdwarae, as this misinformation could have dire consequences for members of the community.
As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.