US govt faces backlash over ‘get off our roads, Mr Singh’ poster

The Hindu American Foundation said the post was“racist, un-American, anti-Indian profiling/trolling”.

AI-generated posters shared by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asking “Mr Singh” to “get off our roads” triggered a backlash from Sikh and Indian-American groups, which accused the Trump administration of racial stereotyping and anti-Indian profiling.

The images, posted on the official DHS account on X on September 9, was named ‘Transformers: Age of Deportations’ based on the Transformers movie franchise. One post features Optimus Prime, the protagonist with a DHS arm patch confronting a brown, bearded man, wearing a head covering. “America for Americans. Get off our roads; you don’t know how to drive, Mr Singh,” the poster said. It carried the slogan “Self-deport or find out” and urged people to report “illegal aliens on American roads”. The posts are part of the Trump administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement campaign.

The Hindu American Foundation said the post was“racist, un-American, anti-Indian profiling/trolling”.  “This is a discriminatory post … we welcome an investigation,” the HAF said, tagging Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K Dhillon and FBI Director Kash Patel.

The Sikh Coalition criticised, saying: “Twenty-five years after 9/11, Sikhs are still being targeted and profiled for how we look.” It said millions of Sikhs in the US have the surname Singh, adding that the community remained “fearless” in identifying as Sikh even when portrayed as enemies by the government.