For over three years now, the Sikh community has faced additional secondary screening, sometimes 100% of the time at major U.S. airports. "Today, we must endure further indignity as our turbans, our crown, the fulcrum of our identity, is considered per se an "anomaly" by TSA's Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT)," stated Jaspreet Singh, Legal Director of UNITED SIKHS. 

This begs the question, how advanced can a technology be when turbans which have folds/ layers will be considered an anomaly or "non-form fitting" headwear and always subject a Sikh to not only secondary, but tertiary (three levels) of screening (see graph below). How many TSA officials will be used to screen one Sikh through three levels of screening? Our society must begin to question whether we are actually safer or whether the perception of safety, by trotting out Sikhs for several layers of screening, is enough. 

Visual representation of the evolution of TSA policies as described by TSA officials.

Click HERE to enlarge image

If you thought you could escape AIT, which many civil rights organizations have called a "virtual strip search", you would be mistaken. TSA is phasing out metal detectors at U.S. airports, leaving passengers with only one option outside AIT, a rigorous "prison style pat-down". 

ACLU Legislative Counsel Chris Calabrese told USA Today: "Are we giving people two intolerable actions at airports? They can be virtually strip-searched or endure a really aggressive grope? (emphasis added)." We are being given a false choice, and hence, no choice at all. TSA has spent billions in rolling out AIT and they will use extreme pat-downs as a way of coercing the public into conformity . . . into using AIT exclusively.
 

While we are waiting for TSA to release a complete written statement of their policies, UNITED SIKHS has drafted a chart which graphs the evolution of TSA policies since 9/11 based on what TSA officials have told us, making it easier for the Sikh community and the general public to simply visualize how TSA's policies have gradually "stripped" passengers, specifically Sikh passengers, of their dignity, modesty, and privacy.  Please see our recent joint letter with other Sikh organizations to TSA Administrator Mr. John S. Pistole for more detail.

If you have experienced discrimination during air travel, REPORT YOUR EXPERIENCE to UNITED SIKHS.

To see our joint community advisory, please click here: http://www.unitedsikhs.org/PressReleases/PRSRLS-05-11-2010-00.html