India’s government should oppose a U.S. government crackdown on the 150,000 Indian drivers in the U.S. trucking industry, said an Indian politician whose district includes many of the drivers’ families.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal represents a district in the Punjab region, which is home to many members of the Sikh ethnic group who work illegally or legally in the U.S. trucking industry. They include the Indian truck driver, Harjinder Singh, who is facing homicide charges after killing three Americans in a turnpike U-turn.
Badal was formerly a cabinet minister in India’s federal government, and used Twitter to ask India’s foreign minister to intervene in U.S. politics to protect the Sikh truck drivers:
More than [150,000] Punjabi truck drivers in the US shud not be discriminated against due to Harjinder [Singh]’s mistake & their livelihood shud not be snatched from them by denying them work visas & making it more difficult for them to drive [U.S.] trucks by bringing in new language proficiency rules.
A crackdown would “have a detrimental effect on [the left-behind] families” in India that depend on the wage remittances sent home by Indian migrants, said Badal, who is a Sikh.
The crackdown is being prompted by public protests about highway deaths and economic damage caused by the growing use of overworked, underpaid, unsupervised, dangerous, and unprofessional foreign truckers on U.S. roads.
Sikhs are a distinct religious and ethnic group in northeastern India that emerged in the 1700s. Sikh men can be recognized by their distinctive turbans that cover their uncut hair. Some Sikhs are pushing for an independent nation-state in the Punjab region, to be called Khalistan.