Members of the Sikh trucking community say a deadly Florida Turnpike crash involving one of its own, which triggered heated national debates over immigration, has led to a spike in anti-Sikh rhetoric.
On Aug. 12, Harjinder Singh, an India-born truck driver, made a U-turn on the Florida Turnpike that authorities say caused a crash killing three people. The crash and subsequent investigations stirred arguments between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
It also sparked online vitriol denigrating members of the monotheistic religion, whose followers often take trucking jobs that allow them to wear beards, uncut hair, and turbans.
"There are a lot of negative comments online," said Prahb Singh, a truck driver in Riverside, California, who is not related to the driver.
None of the people named in this story are in the same family; Singh is a common last name among Sikhs.
"People are saying: 'Take the towel heads off the streets' and 'Make our roads safe by taking immigrants off the street,'" said 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."
Estimates of the Sikh population in the U.S. range up to 750,000, with the largest concentration in California. Many work in trucking and related businesses, including restaurants and trucking schools along major routes.
"I've been talking to a lot of truck drivers, and they've been saying, 'People look at us different now,'" said Sukhpreet Waraich, a trucker who owns a freight carrier in Fontana, California.
A father of three and his family's breadwinner, Waraich worries about being unfairly targeted. Like other Sikhs, he lamented the Florida crash but hopes the driver gets a fair trial and people recognize it as an isolated incident.
"I've been driving since 2019. I haven't got a single ticket," he said.
The North American Punjabi Truckers Association estimates Sikhs make up about 40% of truck drivers on the West Coast and about 20% nationwide. No official figures exist, CEO Raman Dhillon said, but advocacy groups estimate 150,000 to 250,000 Sikh truckers work in the U.S.
Since the crash, the association has received multiple reports of Sikh drivers being harassed. In one case, Dhillon said, a Sikh man was forced out of an Oklahoma truck stop when he tried to take a shower.
In Florida, Harjinder Singh faces manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges and is being held without bond. Florida authorities say he entered the U.S. illegally in 2018, but California officials say federal records show he was legally present with a work permit when he obtained his driver's license.
The Trump administration said Singh should never have received a commercial driver's license because of his immigration status and his failure of an English proficiency test after the crash. But New Mexico officials released video from a traffic stop showing Singh conversing in English with an officer.
DeSantis sent Florida's lieutenant governor to California to oversee Singh's handover, calling him a "thug."
"The sheriff's job is done by the lieutenant governor," whose name-calling "was very low," Dhillon said.
Others in the Sikh trucking industry worry they are becoming scapegoats in the nation's bitter fight over immigration.
"This is a tragedy; it was an accident, and every Punjabi, every Sikh, feels for the victims' family," said Harsimran Singh, CEO of Gillson Trucking in Stockton, California. "But the way that this case has been handled ... has many people in my community fearing for their future."
He said five of his drivers quit, saying they no longer felt safe.
In a show of solidarity, the UNITED SIKHS advocacy group recently gathered outside the Florida jail, praying for the victims and offering financial help for funeral costs while condemning 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," said Gurvinder Singh, the group's humanitarian aid director.
Sikhism, founded more than 500 years ago in India's Punjab region, has about 25 million followers worldwide. In the U.S., Sikhs have long faced discrimination, particularly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when many were mistakenly targeted as Muslims.
At a gurdwara in Fremont, California, Jasdeep Singh said children are already reporting bullying since the Florida crash.
"The whole community has been put on trial because we're so visible," he said. "It was always there but now it's on another level."