Journalist Angad Singh of Vice Media Allegedly Deported to New York Immediately Upon Arrival in New Delhi

Journalist Angad Singh was allegedly denied entry to India and deported from the New Delhi airport to New York on Aug. 24 night. The Sikh American works with Vice Media and is a U.S. citizen and an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holder, according to news reports in Indian media. He was reportedly on a personal trip to India to meet his family. 

The deportation incident came to light after a Facebook post of his mother Gurmeet Kaur, also a writer, went viral. She wrote about how her son, “an American citizen who traveled 18 hours to Delhi to visit us in Punjab was deported,” and “put in the next flight back to New York.” The authorities gave no reason for the deportation, Kaur says in the post, adding that her son’s “award-winning journalism that scares them. It is the stories he did and the stories he is capable of.”

Singh has produced a series of documentaries for Vice News, several of which he has shared on his social media handles, including on the COVID-19 pandemic in India as well as on the Shaheen Bagh protests (the peaceful sit-in protest led by women in Delhi).

His coverage of the deadly Delta wave of the pandemic last year earned him an Emmy nomination.

Kaur further wrote in the post that her son is 6’5” tall. “His back hurts from riding long rides in such small spaces. He must be wanting to lay down. I wish you Chardi Kala my boy. It’s not easy to be a Sikh, a Gursikh on top, a journalist, a warrior of truth and justice. Speaking truth has a price. We must pay it. I am comforting your back. See you in the land of free.”

Singh’s deportation was slammed by many including the Indian Journalists Union (IJU), and the California Sikh Youth Alliance, among others. There has yet been no official statement from the Government of India, airport authority, or the Ministry of External Affairs. In a statement, the IJU described Singh’s decoration as government “vendetta and harassment.”