Dear Sangat,

On Tuesday, September 15, the Sikh Coalition convened a rally in Washington, D.C. to stand with the petitioners in Lujan v. FMCSA II. As many of you know, this case challenges the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s “Final Rule,” implemented this past March, which is attempting to push roughly 200,000 non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s License (ndCDL) holders out of the workforce, based solely on their lawful immigration status. We were grateful to be joined by partners from OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, United Sikhs, the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, and representatives of the trucking industry from within our sangat.

We’re writing to you today because there’s a bigger story unfolding, and it’s one every Sikh family in America needs to understand—even if no one in your household drives a truck.

This isn’t only about trucking—it’s about who gets to work in this country at all

In July, President Trump announced the “Freedom Haulers” initiative to fast-track qualified U.S. military veterans into commercial trucking jobs. On its own, that sounds admirable. But in the context of other recent policy moves, a troubling pattern comes into focus. 

First, since last fall, the administration has worked to sharply restrict ndCDLs, claiming these drivers pose a safety risk. However, there simply isn’t data to back that claim up: the FMCSA itself wrote that there is “not sufficient evidence … to reliably demonstrate a measurable empirical relationship between the nation of domicile for a CDL driver and safety outcomes.” The actual data shows ndCDL holders make up about 5% of all CDL holders but account for only 0.2% of fatal crashes, and that they have a lower crash rate than U.S. citizen drivers. So the safety argument isn’t just weak—it’s been contradicted by the government’s own numbers.

Why this should matter to you, even if you’ve never driven a truck

Trucking isn’t an isolated case, but a preview. This year alone, we’ve watched the same playbook repeat across completely different industries:

  • The Small Business Administration restricted its major loan programs to U.S. citizens only, cutting out even green card holders off from the exact kind of lending that has helped build wealth and create jobs in immigrant communities, including our own, for generations.
  • Hundreds of likely legally present, highly skilled South Korean workers were perp-walked out of a Georgia Hyundai factory in an ICE raid, with serious questions still unanswered about how and why they were targeted.
  • In the past month alone, the administration moved to impose a staggering $103,265 fee on H-1B visas, and to revoke thousands of additional business visas from people who are lawfully seeking asylum.

Every one of these actions points in the same direction: An effort to push foreign-born workers out of as many parts of the American economy as possible. (This was, after all, a policy goal articulated throughout “Project 2025.”) 

What this means for our long-term financial security as a community

This should matter deeply to every Sikh family in this country, regardless of your profession, your immigration status, or even your politics. So many of our families immigrated through exactly the kind of legal pathways now being targeted; many have, over generations, built businesses, careers, and financial futures relying on the same visa categories, lending programs, and professional licenses currently under attack. If the trucking industry can be reshaped overnight through rules the government’s own data contradicts, there is no principled reason to believe medicine, engineering, technology, small business ownership, or any other field our community has worked generations to establish itself in is safe from the same treatment tomorrow.

This is bigger than any single rule or any single rally. It’s about whether our community’s hard-won economic foothold in this country, built over generations of driving trucks, opening small businesses, practicing medicine, working in technology, and building family wealth, can be taken away based on where someone was born rather than what they’ve earned or how safely and diligently they’ve worked. And in the meantime, the economic damage won’t stay contained to the industries targeted first: Economists cited by Forbes are already warning that shrinking the labor pool this way will reduce economic output, slow growth, and increase the federal debt. 

We rallied in Washington this week because Lujan v. FMCSA II is not just a trucking case. It is a test of whether this administration can use safety as a pretext to remove lawfully present people from their livelihoods, without evidence, without due process, and without consequence. There is nothing more American than fighting for your right to work, to provide for your family, and to build a future here. We intend to keep fighting for that right, in court and in the halls of Congress, for our truckers and for every Sikh family whose future depends on this country continuing to keep its word—and we’re grateful for the sangat that keeps showing up for those fights, too.

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.