Washington, D.C. — The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is facing widespread condemnation from civil rights organizations following a controversial social media campaign that targeted immigrant commercial drivers. The campaign, which featured the phrase “get off the roads, you don’t know how to drive Mr. Singh,” has sparked outrage for alleged racism and religious profiling.
On September 9, 2026, the DHS posted a “Transformers”-themed graphic and video on X (formerly Twitter) announcing a hotline for the public to “report illegal aliens on American roads”. The graphic depicted a brown-bearded man wearing a head covering, confronted by the character Optimus Prime adorned with a DHS insignia, alongside the warning to “self-deport or find out”. Following immediate and intense backlash, the federal agency deleted the post.
According to the DHS, the character was intended to represent Harjinder Singh, an undocumented Indian national and truck driver accused of causing a fatal crash in Florida in August 2025. However, advocacy groups argue that the imagery and the use of the surname “Singh”—which means “lion” and is shared by millions of Sikhs and Hindus worldwide—caricatures an entire community and encourages dangerous profiling on American roads.
In a press release issued on September 10, the Sikh Coalition condemned the DHS’s actions as part of a “hostile campaign of policy and rhetoric targeting immigrant truck drivers”. The organization launched an advocacy drive urging the public to contact members of Congress to speak out against the new DHS reporting line.
“A phone line where anyone can call and accuse a driver of committing ‘CDL fraud’ and/or being an ‘illegal immigrant’ with no evidence is flagrant profiling,” the Sikh Coalition stated. The group emphasized that there is no data indicating immigrant drivers cause a disproportionate number of accidents, and criticized the administration’s broader ongoing efforts to push lawfully present immigrant drivers out of the trucking industry. The Coalition also solemnly noted that this rhetoric from an official government agency comes almost exactly 25 years after the surge in hate crimes and discrimination against the Sikh community following the 9/11 attacks.
Other advocacy groups have echoed these concerns. The Hindu American Foundation and the Coalition of Hindus of North America termed the campaign “racist, un-American, [and] anti-Indian profiling,” highlighting that singling out specific last names does nothing for road safety but endangers hundreds of thousands of Americans named Singh or Kumar.
The Sikh Coalition is currently mobilizing its members and allies across various communities to oppose the DHS’s actions, asserting that standing up against such hostile language from a federal agency is a nonpartisan goal that should unite the public.
