Sikhs Say New TSA Rules Still Allow Profiling

January 17, 2008

Author: Greg Trotter

Source: The Pew Forum on Religion & Pubic Life

Wire Service: RNS

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=14785

It is humiliating and demeaning. It is like being strip-searched.

That is how some Sikhs describe their feelings when airport security guards pat down their turbans or tell them to remove the headgear, which is considered a religiously mandated article for Sikh men.

In response to 32 civil rights violation complaints filed by the coalition last summer, the Transportation Security Administration and the New York-based Sikh Coalition worked together to create a new TSA policy that went into effect in October.

But since then, the coalition has received 78 additional complaints.

"There is still a lot of racial profiling going on," said Neha Singh, advocacy director and staff attorney for the Sikh Coalition. "We are concerned with how the new policy is being implemented in different airports."