Groups Says SFO Security Singling Out Sikhs

May 9, 2008

Author: Staff Writer

Source: CBS-5

http://cbs5.com/local/sfo.security.sikhs.2.720717.html

Security at San Francisco International Airport are unfairly singling out Sikhs by misinterpreting federal policy on screening of travelers with head coverings, a civil rights group claimed Friday.

Officials with the New York-based Sikh Coalition released the results Friday of an April study reporting that of all the complaints the group received about Transportation Security Administration screening policy from Sikhs nationwide, more than a third came out of SFO.

"I think that SFO has distinguished itself as the only airport in the United States that consistently pulls aside members of our community for secondary screening," Sikh Coalition Executive Director Amardeep Singh said Friday.

The Bay Area is home to the one of the largest Sikh populations in the country, and Singh said he believes there is "a misapplication of TSA policy by the leadership of federal security at SFO."