In Merced County and across California, many migrants and activists said they have long known what it feels like to be watched – not just by neighbors or local authorities, but by people thousands of miles away.
A bill in California that’s awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature aims to give law enforcement officers the tools to recognize threats that U.S. residents face from foreign entities and respond to them.
Senate Bill 509, authored by California Senator Anna Caballero, D-Merced, and co-authored by Assembly members Esmeralda Soria, D-Merced, and Jasmeet Bains, D-Bakersfield, would require statewide training for police on how to identify and handle transnational repression.
“All Californians deserve to feel safe in their homes, workplaces, and neighborhoods,” Caballero said in a news release. “Just as law enforcement is trained to identify domestic violence and human trafficking, they must also be prepared to protect communities targeted by foreign governments.”
Transnational repression is a term used to describe when foreign governments or their agents threaten, surveil, or harass people living in the U.S. for their political beliefs or activism, and their long-lasting effects on people.
In 2023, the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh leader in Canada, raised new fears. U.S. intelligence agencies later confirmed that India had been involved in plots to assassinate Sikh activists on foreign soil.
The FBI and other agencies warned community leaders across the United States, including here in the Central Valley, about credible threats.
The bill does not create new laws or give police new powers. Instead, it focuses on what supporters call a critical blind spot, ensuring that officers can recognize when foreign interference is happening in their communities.
If signed, the law would direct the California Office of Emergency Services and the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission to develop and regularly update a training program to help local departments understand the signs of foreign political intimidation.
The city of Merced is home to a diverse mix of migrant communities. Still, Police Chief Steve Stanfield said his department has not received any reports of transnational political intimidation and emphasized that his officers would investigate any crime affecting residents.
“I’m not gonna let a citizen of our community be targeted for anything,” he said. “I’m gonna investigate it. I don’t care who it is that’s coming after them.”
He added that his agency already faces challenges in meeting existing training requirements.
“The state mandates so much training on me, but the state forgets that I have to pay for all said training,” he said. “We are trying to make sure that we’re always being attentive to mandated training versus what’s a want versus a need of training.”
Civil rights organizations, including the Sikh Coalition and the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), say the bill is a response to documented cases of harassment and threats that have already occurred in California.
Supporters say those incidents have included assassination plots targeting Sikh activists, surveillance of dissidents by foreign agents, and physical assaults during protests against Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco.
“Our communities are speaking out because these threats have hit home, and we believe that California, home to one of the most diverse populations in the country, can – and must – lead,” said Puneet Kaur, senior state policy manager at the Sikh Coalition.
“SB 509 equips law enforcement with the tools to respond when our freedoms are threatened, not by fellow Californians, but by hostile forces from abroad.”
Kiran Kaur Gill, executive director of SALDEF, said in a press release that the bill demonstrates how the union of diverse communities can translate shared concern into meaningful policy.
“Local law enforcement is often the first to respond when victims are targeted, and they must be equipped to recognize and stop these abuses,” Gill said.
The proposal is framed as a training effort, designed to help officers recognize coordinated intimidation campaigns and collaborate with federal agencies when needed.
“Ultimately, a training for California law enforcement, developed by experts at CalOES and POST, will provide the context for stronger investigations into transnational repression, no matter the perpetrator or the target,” Gill added.
Still, Newsom’s signature on Caballero’s bill is anything but a sure thing. SB 509 has a long list of opponents, including more than a dozen Hindu advocacy groups who warn it could lead to Hindu Americans being unfairly targeted.
For example, The Coalition of Hindus of North America said although SB 509 is well intentioned, its deliberately vague language contains a “deeply flawed and dangerous proposal that threatens the civil liberties of immigrant communities including Hindu Americans.”
A similar bill failed in the Legislature last year after many of those groups came out strongly against it.
According to a 2023 Manteca Bulletin report, Punjabi Americans now number nearly 320,000 nationwide, with about 156,700 living in California.
Most Punjabi Americans in the state live in the Central Valley and the Bay Area. One of the highest concentrations is in Merced County, where the city of Livingston has about 2,798 Indian American residents.
Livingston is also home to two of the 73 Gurdwaras, or Sikh temples, in California.
Many of these families first came to the region for work in farming, trucking, or small business. Others came after surviving political violence, following the 1984 assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards triggered a wave of organized retaliation in India.
The attack was in response to Operation Blue Star, a violent military raid on the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar.
In the days that followed Gandhi’s slaying, mobs swept through Sikh neighborhoods in New Delhi and other cities. Homes and businesses were destroyed.
Thousands were killed. Women were raped. Human rights groups said the violence was systematic and often encouraged by political leaders. Police and state forces did little to intervene.
For many Sikh Americans, that trauma is still present. It lives in memory and continues to resurface.
Other legislative efforts came in 2023 with the passage of AJR2, when the state recognized the 1984 attacks on Sikhs as genocide.
At the federal level, similar measures have been floated before, though none have gained much traction.
As the bill awaits the governor’s signature, Gill said, the focus should shift to “ensuring its implementation delivers concrete, lasting protections, not mere symbolism.”