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“STOP RACIAL PROFILING OF SIKHS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1796-E1797 on Oct. 8, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
STOP RACIAL PROFILING OF SIKHS
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HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
of new york
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, October 8, 2002
Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, racial profiling of Sikhs continues in our country a year after terrorists attacked New York and Washington. According to the September 20 issue of the New York Times, two Sikh men were arrested while trying to fly from New York to Las Vegas for an Exxon convention. Mr. Wander could be facing up to 20 years in prison, according to the article.
Gurdeep Wander and Harinder Pal Singh were headed to that convention on a Northwest Airlines flight after missing a previous connecting flight in Minneapolis. They were flying on the night of September 10 to avoid flying on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, but had to fly on the morning of the 11th after being delayed. Apparently, it is now a crime to fly if your hair is long and your skin is dark.
Mr. Wander and Mr. Singh were late for their flight and ran on board. Right after them, a Hispanic man named Carlos Nieves rushed onto the plane. All that the two Sikh men carried was the shaving kits they had been given by the airline, because their luggage had already been forwarded to Las Vegas. The flight attendants said that they found three swarthy men rushing onto the plane suspicious. I can't help but wonder if they would have been suspicious of three white men rushing onto a plane.
Right before departure, Mr. Wander got out of his seat and got the shaving kit the airline had given him. He asked to use the restroom. After a few minutes, the flight attendant asked him to sit down and he asked for a minute to finish up. After Mr. Wander came out, Mr. Nieves went to the restroom, followed by Mr. Singh. The flight attendant tried to prevent Mr. Singh from using the restroom, claiming that explosive devices could be assembled if separate individuals carried the components. Because of Mr. Wander's, Mr. Nieves's, and Mr. Singh's skin color, she clearly assumed that they were doing so.
After the plane made an emergency landing in Arkansas, Mr. Singh, Mr. Wander, and an Egyptian man named Alaaeldin Abdelsalam were detained. All the luggage was taken out of the plane. Soon, the plane was surrounded by bomb-sniffing dogs.
It is clear that Northwest Airlines detained these individuals because of their darker skin color. This is racial profiling, and it is wrong. It must be ended. The Transportation Department must put out an order banning racial profiling. Otherwise, it will be dangerous for any minority to fly.
We must treat all passengers equally. No one should be detained for his or her skin color. It must be stopped now. I call on Northwest and all the airlines to end this racist practice and I hope that those who are victimized by this practice will get full recompense.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to place the New York Times article I referred to into the Record at this time.
Bound for Las Vegas, 2 Men Take a 9/11 Detour to Jail
(By Edward Wong)
Fort Smith, Ark., Sept. 19.--The distance between a convention in Las Vegas and a brick jail here in the lush plains of western Arkansas proved far shorter than Gurdeep Wander and Harinder Singh ever could have imagined.
Mr. Wander and Mr. Singh, two gas station workers of Indian descent from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, boarded a Northwest Airlines flight on Sept. 10 from La Guardia Airport, bound for an Exxon convention. In one of the more Kafkaesque instances of air travel jitters, they landed in the county jail here on Sept. 11, and spent more than a week sleeping in orange jump suits between razor-wire fences. Today, Mr. Wander appeared in a federal courtroom and quietly listened as Judge Beverley Stites Jones said that she had found probable cause that he had intimidated a flight attendant.
A grand jury will probably decide next week whether to indict him in the crime, which carries up to 20 years in prison.
The story of how Mr. Wander and Mr. Singh, who was released on Wednesday, ended up here involves a missed plane connection, terrorism concerns, a surplus of facial hair and arguably poor judgment on the part of many people. Mr. Wander's lawyer, Matthew J. Ketcham, says his client is the victim of racial profiling and paranoia. Federal prosecutors argue that Mr. Wander scared a flight attendant when he refused to sit down, which resulted in the pilot's landing the Las Vegas-bound plane here.
Mr. Wander, who is a 48-year-old American citizen, and Mr. Singh, a 41-year-old citizen of India, made it a point to travel on Sept. 10 because they wanted to avoid flying on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Ketcham said. Their plane arrived late in Minneapolis, and the two missed their connecting flight. The airline gave each a shaving kit, and they slept in a nearby hotel, Mr. Ketcham said.
They caught a flight the next morning, barely making a connection to Las Vegas through Memphis. They rushed on board, followed by a Hispanic man named Carlos Nieves. Mr. Wander and Mr. Singh carried only their shaving kits, because their luggage had been forwarded. The three men sat in different parts of the plane.
The sudden appearance of the men seemed suspicious to the three flight attendants, who asked burly passengers to keep an eye on them, said Deborah Summers, a flight attendant who testified here today. Right before takeoff, with the ``fasten seatbelt'' sign on, Mr. Wander left his seat at the rear to get his shaving kit from an overhead compartment. Ms. Summers said she noticed from his boarding pass that he had not taken his assigned seat next to Mr. Singh.
Mr. Ketcham said Mr. Wander just wanted to stretch out because he had had little sleep.
After the plane began ascending, and while the ``fasten seatbelt'' sign was still on, Mr. Wander asked Ms. Summers if he could use the restroom. She let him go. He stayed inside for 10 minutes, Ms. Summers said, prompting her to knock on the door. Mr. Wander opened the door, told her he needed to clean up and shut the door. She knocked again soon afterward. When he opened the door, he was shirtless and in the middle of shaving. The pilot urged her to check his razor, then told her to tell him to get out. After five exchanges, Mr. Wander sat down.
``He didn't refuse to leave,'' Mr. Ketcham said. ``She only asked him explicitly twice to sit down and he asked for a minute to finish up.''
Almost immediately, Mr. Nieves, who did not know the other two men, got up to use the same restroom. This was reported to the pilot, Capt. David McGuirk, who had ordered all passengers to stay in their seats. After Mr. Nieves left the restroom, Mr. Singh went to use it.
By now, Ms. Summers said, she was trying to lock the restroom. She had learned that ``an explosive device can be assembled if separate individuals carry the components,'' an affidavit by an F.B.I. agent who questioned her said.
Ms. Summers tried to dissuade Mr. Singh from using the same restroom, saying it was broken. Mr. Singh insisted, because another one in the rear was occupied, said George Lucas, a lawyer for Mr. Singh. He used the other restroom, then sat down next to Mr. Wander.
While Mr. Singh was in the restroom, Captain McGuirk decided to make an emergency landing here. Soon, the plane was surrounded by police officers, fire trucks and bomb-sniffing dogs. The three men, along with a native of Egypt living in Louisiana named Alaaeldin M. Abdelsalam, were told to remain in their seats, Mr. Ketcham said. ``It's no coincidence that these dark-skinned men were singled out,'' he said.
The plane's luggage was pulled out, and a dog raised an alert at Mr. Abdelsalam's bag, which was blown open with a water cannon. He was arrested, along with Mr. Wander and Mr. Singh. Mr. Nieves was released after questioning. Mr. Abdelsalam was released after he explained that he worked in an oil field and that his chemical-stained boots and hard hat were in his bag.
The authorities let Mr. Singh go on Wednesday after he agreed to pay a $500 civil penalty. As for Mr. Wander, Mr. Cromwell said the intimidation charge ``is warranted.'' Mr. Wander was released today on a $25,000 bond.
Ms. Summers, prosecutors and Northwest Airlines said the flight crew's actions were based on the behavior of the men, not on their skin color.
Mr. Singh could not be reached for comment, and Mr. Wander did not make a public statement today. After his release, he piled into a car with family members to return to his home in Washington, N.J. Apparently, no one wanted to fly.
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