[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 131 (Tuesday, October 8, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1796-E1797]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     STOP RACIAL PROFILING OF SIKHS

                                 ______
                                 

                          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.

          [lsqb]From the New York Times, Sept. 20, 2002[rsqb]

         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

[[Page E1797]]

     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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