Today on the 25th Anniversary of 9/11, we remember the nearly 3,000 people killed on September 11, 2001. We honor the first responders, the survivors who continue to live with physical and emotional injuries, and the families whose lives were forever changed.

For South Asian communities, the memory of September 11th is intertwined with what followed. Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Arabs, and others faced hate violence, harassment, workplace discrimination, government surveillance, detention, and deportation. Just four days after the attacks, Balbir Singh Sodhi was murdered outside his gas station in Mesa, Arizona, because his killer saw his turban and beard and decided he was an enemy.

Twenty-five years later, we cannot allow that history to repeat itself.

This week, as we mark this anniversary, the Department of Homeland Security used its social media accounts to single out Sikh truck drivers, invoking the same dangerous combination of racial profiling, religious stereotyping, and government-sanctioned suspicion that caused so much harm after September 11th.

But this targeting extends beyond a single government post. Fear is being used to justify attacks on birthright citizenship, restrictions on immigration benefits, punitive barriers aimed at foreign workers, and efforts to silence people’s voices at the ballot box. Together, these efforts use fear to determine who belongs in America and whose rights are protected.

On September 11th, people rushed toward danger to save others, often at great risk to themselves. That instinct to protect one another should guide us now. We build public safety by protecting every person’s dignity, liberty, and belonging and ensuring that all our communities share in the promise of this country.

SAAJCO honors those lost on September 11th by fighting for a country in which tragedy and fear are never used to justify targeting entire communities.

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