WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Grace Meng, D-N.Y., criticized a Department of Homeland Security social media campaign Wednesday that depicted a South Asian man identified as “Mr Singh” in immigration enforcement messaging.
The DHS post used AI-generated imagery styled after the “Transformers” franchise and showed a bearded man wearing a head covering alongside the messages “America for Americans” and “Get off our roads; you don’t know how to drive, Mr Singh.” A related post urged people to report undocumented immigrants driving on U.S. roads.
Meng said the posts unfairly targeted Sikhs and other immigrants and condemned the use of the surname Singh in the campaign.
The Sikh Coalition and other advocacy organizations also criticized the posts, noting that Singh is a common surname among Sikhs.
Meng cited Dalip Singh Saund, who was elected from California in 1956 and became the first Asian American elected as a full voting member of the U.S. House.
The dispute comes after the FBI released its 2025 hate-crime statistics in August. An analysis cited by the Sikh Coalition found 177 reported anti-Sikh hate-crime incidents in 2025, up from 142 in 2024, a 25% increase.
Overall, the FBI reported 10,606 hate-crime incidents in its year-over-year comparison dataset for 2025, down 7% from 11,404 in 2024. Nearly 16,800 law enforcement agencies participated in the FBI’s hate-crime data collection.
Meng represents New York’s 6th Congressional District and currently chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
