What Does The Bibi Harjit Kaur Ordeal Tell Sikh Americans?

"Bibi Harjit Kaur was caught in the crossfire of a current Western politics of hate, bigotry and decaying empire..."

Mandeep Singh
October 2, 2025 | 7 min. read | Opinion

ਨੀਚਾ ਅੰਦਰਿ ਨੀਚ ਜਾਤਿ ਨੀਚੀ ਹੂ ਅਤਿ ਨੀਚੁ ॥
ਨਾਨਕੁ ਤਿਨ ਕੈ ਸੰਗਿ ਸਾਥਿ ਵਡਿਆ ਸਿਉ ਕਿਆ ਰੀਸ ॥

ਜਿਥੈ ਨੀਚ ਸਮਾਲੀਅਨਿ ਤਿਥੈ ਨਦਰਿ ਤੇਰੀ ਬਖਸੀਸ ॥੪॥੩॥

I seek the company of the lowest of the low, I am the very lowest of the low.
It is their Sangat I seek, why would I want to associate or emulate the (so-called) great?

Where the (so-called) low find care/love; there is Your (Waheguru) Grace and Blessings

The truth is as profound as it is simple: Guru Nanak Sahib walks with those the world casts aside. The blessings of Waheguru rain down where the forgotten are embraced, where the broken are lifted, where the outcast is made family. So the question is, on what side does the Sikh stand? With the oppressed or with the oppressor? History answers with unmistakable clarity. From the shaheedi of our Gurus to the struggles of the Khalsa, the path of the righteous Sikh has never wavered.

The Sikh stands with the oppressed - always.

The story of Bibi Harjit Kaur is a microcosm of the story of all non-indigenous people who migrate for a better and safer life. A 73-year-old grandmother, she made the Bay Area her home for over three decades, becoming a living thread in the fabric of the East Bay community and a beloved presence at the El Sobrante Gurdwara. For more than twenty years, she worked quietly and faithfully as a seamstress in a small business, stitching clothes while weaving connections that warmed the hearts of all who knew her.

However, Bibi Harjit Kaur was far more than her work: she was a mother and grandmother, but also a guiding, nurturing presence to so many beyond her own family. To neighbors, to friends, to the Sangat, she was comfort and care embodied. In her humility, in her steadfast service, she exemplified everything a community could ever hope for in a citizen: devoted, selfless, and deeply rooted in love for all.

On September 8, 2025, Bibi Harjit Kaur was detained while she was at her regular scheduled check-in with the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE). What occurred in that moment and in the days that followed has been a clear act of elder abuse, carried out in service of a political agenda designed to satisfy the cruelty of those who cheer the suffering of immigrants and society’s most vulnerable. The Trump administration and the Republicans openly championed on mass deportations, building their platform on fear and resentment. From the very start of his political career, Trump branded migrants as “drug dealers, criminals, rapists,” setting the tone for a politics steeped in racism and xenophobia. Far too many of our own brothers and sisters bought into the politics of white supremacy.

This is not an accident. It is the deliberate weaponization of policy to inflict cruelty and pain.

Under Trump, deportations were expanded on an unprecedented scale, continuing and hardening an “enforcement-first” approach that even under previous administrations, including one that earned President Obama the nickname Deporter-in-Chief, has already torn countless families apart. What we are witnessing here is not simply political disagreement, but rather a calculated assault on human dignity, targeting immigrants and the marginalized to score political victories.

Bibi Harjit Kaur was caught in the crossfire of a current Western politics of hate, bigotry and a decaying empire that longs to hold onto power through mass surveillance, increased law enforcement and a divide of a people through lines of race.

Bibi Harjit Kaur’s asylum case was denied during the 2012-2013 year. Under ICE’s request, she repeatedly checked in with ICE every six months. She was given a work visa allowing her legal work authorization. This all happened because the Indian consulate refused to give her travel documents so she could leave on her own terms. Even after multiple repeated attempts and requests directly by ICE themselves, the Indian consulate refused to provide travel documents for Bibi Harjit Kaur. Thus, she has been in limbo for over a decade.

She has an immaculate record. She is a beloved member of her community who has paid taxes into the system while having zero crime history. She has been a contributing member of society for every moment she has been in America. If someone like her is in the crosshairs of the current fascistic rage in Western countries, then what hope do the rest of us have?

On Monday, September 8th, Bibi Harjit Kaur’s granddaughter took her to San Francisco at 8 a.m. for her routine immigration check-in. While waiting for over an hour, her granddaughter wondered what was taking so long. Two hours went by. Three hours went by. Then she got the worst phone call a grandchild can imagine in this scenario, and she was told that she could go home because ICE had detained her grandmother.

Through her attorney, Deepak Ahluwalia, who got to see her after a week of her detention, we learned Bibi Harjit Kaur was shackled and cuffed for over 5 hours while in custody in initial detention, and then later taken to Fresno, where she was held in a cell without a bed or chair to sit on. Eventually, she was taken to Bakersfield at the Mesa Verde ICE Detention Facility. They arrived at 3 pm on Tuesday. While being transported, she was in the vehicle with no seatbelt on, while being cuffed. She was unable to hold onto anything and wasn’t secure as they were driving on highways and moving in and out of cities. She received a vegetarian meal after a week of being in detention. Her phone call privileges were not activated for over a week. She’s on several medications and to date, she’s been given medications only for her thyroid. ICE was given the full medication list during her check-in. She requested to see a doctor, but has not been even since by a nurse, much less a doctor. While being detained, she asked for water, and was told by the ICE employee, “No More Water.” A 73 yr old woman has been subjected to this treatment. What is this, if not elder abuse? What is this, if not purposeful cruelty? What is this, if not oppression?

A few days after Bibi Harjit Kaur’s detention, we at Jakara Movement learned about the case from her daughter, Manjit Kaur, who informed us that they need all the help they can get to inform the sangat about Bibi Harjit Kaur’s ordeal. The family was immediately connected to the media to get their story out. The sangat members were horrified when they learned of Bibi Harjit Kaur’s situation and treatment. A protest was organized for the following day in El Sobrante to bring the sangat together and uplift the voice of Bibi Harjit Kaur’s family. On a single day’s notice, 200+ community members from all backgrounds gathered to protest the detention of Bibi Harjit Kaur.

The family of Bibi Harjit Kaur set up a website for members of the sangat to help. The website https://bringharjithome.com laid out options for individuals that wanted to help. Even after multiple requests from congress members, organizations and community members for humane treatment of this elderly woman, ICE secretly transferred Bibi Ji in the middle of the night to Los Angeles in shackles and put her on a flight to Georgia to be deported 3 days later. When she asked for water so she could take her medication, she was given a plate of ice. When she informed the ICE agent she had dentures and couldn’t eat ice, the agent replied, “That’s your fault.”

Children, who are U.S. citizens, but have members of the family who may be undocumented immigrants live with great uncertainty about their families and their own future. “Children whose families are subject to immigration enforcement feel less safe at school and report a higher incidence of bullying incidents. Parents who are subject to these types of enforcement are less engaged in their children’s schooling.” The effect on the economy is rising prices and destruction of jobs especially “rippling through industries that rely on immigrant workers, like farms, hotels, construction and meatpacking plants.”

The case of Bibi Harjit Kaur is one of a person who tried to do everything right, according to the law. She was not an “illegal”. She was documented under ICE’s own system. However, we must critically examine what is considered illegal vs. immoral.

We cannot see morality through the lens of governmental legality and illegality. It was illegal to drink from “Whites-only” water fountains in America for colored people. Through the Alien Land Act, it was illegal for immigrants to own land in America for many years and the last remnants of it were repealed in 2018 in Florida. It is illegal NOW in many western countries for a Khalsa to practice Sikhi and walk into city halls and courthouses wearing a kirpan. It was illegal for Bhai Taru Singh to feed the Khalsa in the jungles. Oppression on people has always been doled out through unjust laws.

The Sikh must use the framework of Gurmat to understand legality vs. morality, not Western democracy, which is on the chopping block every election cycle. Those in power who claim morality through legality do not even respect their own rule of law.

The Poet Sainapati, one of Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s 52 poets, writes in his work Gursobha, “The Khalsa stands on one side; the world on the other.” Where do we as individuals actually stand? When the world around us is focused on eliminating those on the margins of society, where is our place as individuals? As a sangat? Do we have the courage to look in the mirror and confront our contributions to the current-day subjugation faced by our people on the margins? Can we critically examine the politics that asks us daily to submit to myths of a model minority? Do we understand that we personally may be next as a roadblock in the fascism parade?

The hope of having a seat at the table so you can get closer to power structures to improve society, while a noble thought, is a misguided one. “Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them,” Assata Shakur once shared.

Soon, we will not even be welcome at the gates, much less let into the house to beg for a seat on the table.

What is the Sikh to do? The answer to this question and any question the Sikh faces is given by Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale, who eloquently states; Neither must Sikhs oppress nor should they live under oppression.

Now, it is time to self-reflect and search your soul. What will you do? Will you build with your fellow sangat members in a way that lifts each other up? Can we hold ourselves and each other accountable beyond the binaries of left vs right? Will you aim to live up to the direction given by Guru Nanak Sahib’s bani, “Nanak seeks the company of the lowest of the low class, the very lowest of the low.”

The Sikh must. The Sikh is ordered to. It is Waheguru’s Hukam.

Mandeep Singh is the Sacramento Regional Director for The Jakara Movement. His passions include organizing with Sikhs, learning from the Sangat, and helping increase community capacity. He is also passionate about hiking. You can find him on Twitter @Light0fMind.

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