Simran Singh’s weekly visits to the Mesa Verde ICE Detention Center provide Sikh detainees with essential articles of faith, fostering hope and connection amid their struggles for asylum in the U.S.
Every Thursday, 33-year-old insurance broker Simran Singh embarks on a mission from his home in Bakersfield, California. He fills his car with essential items, stopping at an Indian grocery store for Punjabi-language newspapers and then at a gurdwara to collect around 50 servings of prashad, a traditional sweet pudding made for devotees.
His destination is the Mesa Verde ICE Detention Center, a stark beige structure surrounded by metal fences topped with barbed wire. After checking in and receiving a visitor badge, Singh is escorted to the cafeteria, where he spends the next ninety minutes meeting with approximately sixty Sikh detainees. He distributes cloth dastaars, maalas (prayer beads), karas (metal bracelets), Nitnem Gutke (prayer books), and Punjabi newspapers, engaging in conversations that offer a sense of community and support.
In the midst of the despair surrounding asylum cases, transfers, and fears of deportation, the items Singh brings symbolize a glimmer of hope. “It is heartwarming to see,” Singh reflects. “Now they know that there is someone who knows they exist, that they’re not just a number in a facility.”
Singh’s initiative began in 2016, sparked by his curiosity while volunteering with a Sikh community organization to register voters at the gurdwara. With immigration a hot topic during Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign, he discovered the nearby detention center and decided to investigate. To his surprise, he found three Sikh detainees at Mesa Verde. After completing a volunteer course, he began visiting them regularly.
Over the next four years, Singh’s visits became a weekly routine, coinciding with a significant increase in the number of South Asian detainees, particularly Sikhs from India. Between 2016 and 2020, the number of Sikh detainees rose from three to 40, many detained immediately after crossing the border. This trend mirrored a rise in apprehensions of Indian nationals by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) during that period, peaking at 71,781 encounters in 2023.
Many of these individuals hail from Punjab, Haryana, and Gujarat, fleeing financial insecurity or political persecution. Their journeys to the U.S. often involve perilous travel by air, water, and foot, only to face detention upon arrival.
Language and cultural barriers further complicate the asylum process for South Asian immigrants. Fresno-based immigration attorney Deepak Singh Ahluwalia highlights the challenges posed by language discrepancies, noting that many Border Patrol officers lack the ability to communicate effectively with asylum-seekers. “The language barrier is huge, it’s immense,” he said. “In 10 years, I’ve met one CBP officer who spoke Punjabi!”
For Sikhs, the issue of their articles of faith, particularly turbans, has become contentious during border crossings. Harminder Singh, a 36-year-old Sikh truck driver, fled political persecution in Punjab in 2022. After a grueling four-month journey, he and his family were detained at the San Luis, Arizona border. Despite his pleas to keep his turban on, Border Patrol officers forced him to remove it, leading to a traumatic experience that left him feeling humiliated in front of his children.
After being separated from his family and suffering from physical distress, Harminder was released two days later, only to find himself without his turban. His experience is not isolated; reports indicate that at least 64 Sikh immigrants had their turbans confiscated at the Arizona border around August 2022. Following advocacy from civil rights groups, CBP issued guidance to prevent unnecessary confiscation of Sikh articles of faith, though reports have surfaced of continued issues.
Singh emphasizes the importance of providing detainees with their articles of faith, as many do not have access to them while in detention. The facility’s budget typically covers basic items like books and games, but often neglects the religious needs of detainees. To bridge this gap, Singh has relied on his network to source and deliver essential items.
He has successfully procured Nitnem Gutke, dastaars, karas, and maalas through various means, including donations from family members and local businesses. During his visits, he encourages detainees to share maalas with fellow inmates, fostering connections among individuals from diverse backgrounds.
In addition to delivering articles of faith, Singh has organized kirtan dewans—Sikh devotional concerts—at various ICE facilities, promoting cultural exchange and understanding among detainees. His efforts have expanded significantly, with Singh supplying thousands of religious items to 18 detention centers across multiple states since July 2025.
The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily halted Singh’s visits, but he resumed them in June 2025, witnessing a surge in detainee numbers as restrictions lifted. On a recent visit, he met with 65 South Asian detainees, the highest number he has encountered to date, with more than half identifying as Sikh.
Singh notes a troubling trend: many detainees are now being apprehended during routine ICE check-ins rather than immediately after crossing the border. “They don’t want to miss these visits, so ICE is having these immigrants walk into what ends up being a trap,” he explains.
For many detainees, Singh serves as their only connection to the outside world. Phone calls to family are prohibitively expensive, and the emotional toll of detention is profound. During his visits, detainees often share their stories of hardship and uncertainty, revealing the psychological strain of their circumstances.
Singh acknowledges the difficulty of not knowing the outcomes of the detainees he meets. “I just show up and either they’re going to be there or they’re not going to be there. I don’t get that closure or find out what happens once they’re gone,” he says.
As the number of detainees at the Mesa Verde Detention Center continues to rise, Singh remains committed to providing support and resources to those in need. “It’s a big morale booster,” he states. “They have a way to keep their identity in a place where everyone’s wearing the same clothes, waking up at the same time, following the same schedule, day in, day out for months and years at a time. It’s like putting a bandage on something that requires a major operation.”
Source: Original article