January 12, 2026 (Nationwide) — Especially in light of recent events, the Sikh Coalition continues to believe that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urgently require oversight and accountability.

Last week, a masked ICE agent shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother and American citizen, in her car in Minneapolis. The federal government insists that the agent acted in self defense, but video evidence of the shooting—as well as eyewitness accounts—does not support this claim. Additional video evidence also shows ICE agents stopping medical personnel from attending to the dying woman. To be clear, this is not the first instance of an ICE agent shooting people in the course of immigration enforcement.

As we have said before, our country can and should have a robust public debate about aspects of immigration policy, and reasonable people will disagree in the course of that conversation. ICE’s apparent ability to threaten the safety of individuals and communities without any accountability, however, is unacceptable. For that reason, the Sikh Coalition invites sangat members to TAKE ACTION on two pieces of federal legislation meant to impose measured, common-sense oversight on this agency:

  1. The Protecting Sensitive Locations Act (PSLA) would reinstate previous guidance, used by DHS under both Democratic and Republican administrations, that prohibited immigration enforcement at so-called “sensitive locations,” including hospitals, schools, and houses of worship like gurdwarae. You can read the bill text here, and use our tool to email your elected officials here.
  2. The VISIBLE Act would require federal agents conducting immigration enforcement to wear clothing identifying their agency and either their last name or badge number; it would also prohibit them from using non-medical masks in most situations, and provides for an accountability measure to enforce these rules. Again, you can read the bill text here, and use our tool to email your elected officials here.

In addition to providing these tools for interested sangat members, the Sikh Coalition is taking further action of our own. We are reaching out to members of Congress who are not yet sponsoring the PSLA and VISIBLE Act. Our work on the PSLA in particular is in coordination with the Center for Law and Social Policy, a nonprofit organization that has gathered more than 800 organizations to support this bill; you can also read our letter of endorsement for the VISIBLE Act, in which we reflect on the legacy of Bhai Jaswant Singh Khalra and our sangat’s history with enforced disappearances, here. We also continue to investigate state-level measures to better protect communities from ICE overreach. And we continue to promote the best ‘know your rights’ immigration information we can gather, in both English and Punjabi.

Finally, we must underscore that the minimal oversight for ICE or DHS harms our own community. As mentioned above, gurdwarae are now potentially subject to immigration raids—leaving sangat fearful and plagued by rumors. There is no substantive response when we reach out to DHS about the potential mistreatment of Sikh migrants and deportees, including individuals who have their turbans seized and destroyed. And individual community members like Bibi Harjit Kaur and Paramjit Singh are treated horrifically by our government and left with no recourse. When a government, or a law enforcement agency within that government, increasingly feels empowered to act without any consequences, all communities are at risk.

Every June and October, our community reflects on the violence of 1984; the Sikh Coalition in particular has argued, over and over again, that our past must inform our future. We know that a government that treats all people of certain identities with suspicion or brutality is wrong. We know that politicians who pour inflammatory words like gasoline on to the fires of unrest are wrong. And we know that law enforcement officers who operate with impunity are wrong. For these reasons, we continue to prioritize the push for ICE oversight as a matter of the civil rights of all people.

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.