A Trump acolyte of Sikh faith is getting roasted by her MAGA bros after standing up for immigrant truckers who are the receiving end of nativist fury in America. Harmeet Dhillon, a California Attorney who heads the civil rights division in the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, is finding out that being part of the MAGAsphere does not provide any cover against racist rage-baits – an experience other Indian-American Trump loyalists like Kash Patel, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Dinesh D’Souza, are also facing. A recent Diwali message from Patel, a die-hard Trump loyalist, drew floods of vitriol, including calls to “go back to India,” “go back home and worship your sand demons.” Following reports of immigrant Sikh drivers facing racial profiling after two members of the community were involved in fatal accident, Dhillon attacked her Democrat-run home state of California for its “absurd coddling of illegal aliens,” by issuing commercial drivers license without adequate checks, but urged Americans not to discriminate against all immigrant drivers. “Those responsible for these tragedies must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law…Unfortunately, in the fog of outrage, some are using these tragedies as an opportunity to attack law-abiding Sikhs and Indian-origin drivers, simply because of who they are,” she wrote in a post on X.“It is illegal under federal law to discriminate against individuals or attack or violently threaten them because of their race, color, religion, or national origin. The @CivilRights will aggressively prosecute or pursue justice against those engaged in such discrimination,” she warned. Blowback from MAGA nativists was swift, with scores of scorching smackdowns. “Indian appointee protecting Indian immigrants stealing jobs from Americans. Who could have seen that coming?” wrote one troll. “ Another chimed in, “I, for one, am shocked that an indian is threatening to wield her power against Americans on behalf of her co-ethnics. You are Indian, and you ran cover for your India bros.”A long-time Republican, Dhillon has been long known for work on discrimination against Sikhs and other South Asians, including her past association with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an organization anathema to the MAGA diehards. Although she has since gravitated to the Trump orbit, she, like some of her fellow Indian-Americans are feeling the nativist MAGA burn that does not spare people of color. At the same time, they are also facing ridicule from the so-called “Radical Left” which is taunting them for “not being white enough.” The twin fatal trucking accidents involving Sikh drivers though has brought out the beast from the MAGA belly. Even though the American Trucking Association (ATA) estimates a current driver shortage of 60,000 that could go up to 160,000 by 2030 if unaddressed, MAGA activists are arguing that the U.S has sufficient number of native-born truckers, and immigrant drivers are simply undercutting the wages of native drivers – the same argument made on the H1B front, where Corporate America is saying the U.S does not have enough skilled tech workers and MAGA nativists are saying that is a false claim by tech companies seeking to cut costs with immigrant guest workers. According to the ATA, the shortage of truckers is driven by fewer native-born Americans taking to long-haul driving because of “lifestyle challenges” ( long hours, time away from family, tough conditions etc). The median age of American truckers is 46, and without immigrants drivers, replacement levels will not keep pace with retirements. The Association has warned, among other things, of potential supply chain disruptions, higher shipping costs passed to consumers, and overworked drivers risking safety. But for now MAGA has driven those concerns off the road, ratcheting up a campaign against immigrant drivers on the basis of two accidents involving Sikh drivers — from the 5000 fatal accidents annually in America.
