IN THE early 1900s, well before the massive immigration from India to the United States that was to occur in the later half of the 20th century, two Sikh men made the journey from the Punjab to the fertile hills of California in search of a better life.

These two men, like thousands of others, settled in the U.S. in the face of segregation and secondclass citizen status, and spent the next century working hard and ensuring a better life for their descendants. Today, one of those descendants has risen thought the ranks of the Bush administration and found unequivocal success as an American.

Uttam Dhillon, director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement for the Department of Homeland Security, can trace his family tree to the time when segregation was the rule rather than the exception. Due to their similar lifestyles, laws prohibiting the emigration of Indian women, and antimiscegenation laws (those forbidding interracial marriages but which characterized Indians and Mexicans as “brown”), the early Sikh immigrant men largely found wives within the Mexican community. Both Dhillon’s grandmothers are Mexican; Dhillon practices Catholicism and regularly attends the gurdwara. “When those Punjabi men married the Mexican women,” Dhillon says, “those women were all Catholics, so that was passed down.”

‘WE ARE AMERICANS’

But more than anything, Dhillon and his family are dedicated to their homeland. “By the time I was born, my grandparents had been in the country for 60 years, and my parents had been raised in this country,” Dhillon says. “We are Americans.”

His grandfathers were part of the earliest wave of immigration from India to the U.S., and Dhillon proudly regards his early immigrant ancestors as pathfinders who paved the way for future immigrants, fighting the early battles of discrimination, racism and unequal rights.

The PBS documentary “Roots in the Sand,” which documents the Sikh-Mexican subculture, highlights many of Dhillon’s family members and was narrated by his brother. Dhillon’s grandfathers were pioneers of the first Sikh temple, Gurdwara El Centro, which Dhillon visits when he comes home to Southern California.

As a young man, Dhillon considered a career in psychology and was pursuing an advanced degree in the field when he decided he wanted to be a lawyer. After acquiring a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley, Dhillon joined a private practice in Los Angeles.

His desire to be a trial lawyer pulled him into the public arena and he served as assistant U.S. attorney in California for a number of years, working as a drug prosecutor.

Dhillon arrived in Washington in the mid- 1990s, working on congressional committees as counsel under then-Rep. Christopher Cox, R-CA (currently chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission), and he has never looked back. His years as a drug prosecutor in California have given him ample experience for his current position. He was “very interested in the (drug) issue from the time I was a young lawyer,” Dhillon says, citing as his proudest achievement a successful 13-week trial. “We got convictions and very long sentences for very bad people.”

Now on the administrative side of things, Dhillon believes strongly the War on Drugs is one that must be fought. “People say ‘You’re never going to solve this problem.’ I tell them, ‘You’re never going to stop people from robbing banks, but that doesn’t mean you don’t prosecute bank robbers.’ We need to ensure that there are always sufficient resources toprosecute drug traffickers and put them in jail for a very, very, long time.”

His position has also opened Dhillon’s eyes to the larger problems facing Homeland Security. In closely examining the ways in which drugs can enter the U.S., “you realize that if drugs can enter the U.S., other things can enter the U.S. as well,” Dhillon says. “People who want to harm us and people who want to bring in things that can harm us can enter the United States. It has made me
more aware of the difficult issues that we face every day in protecting our country.”

MY GRANDMOTHER WAS ILLEGAL

And what about “protecting our country” from illegal immigrants? Dhillon’s intimate connection with the issue does affect his opinion of illegal immigration. “My grandmother initially came here illegally,” Dhillon says. “I think I have a view or sense about that that is sympathetic. Given that my family is all immigrants, I have an understanding of the desire to come to this country. I wouldn’t be here if my family didn’t make that decision. But I have to tell you, we were raised from the beginning to think of ourselves as Americans and to follow the rules. People who come here need to follow the rules. That’s just the way it is.”

Dhillon’s current position requires him to defer to the administration’s policies on a range of issues including terrorism, racial profiling and torture. He comes from a family of Republicans and is proud to be a part of the Bush administration.

Currently, Dhillon’s main goal is to ensure the Homeland Security Department is cohesive and efficient. “It only came together four years ago, and brought together a whole variety of different departments – there is law enforcement, intelligence, science and technology,” he says. “This is a work in progress. The challenge we face is to knit all of that together. My job is to ensure that the mission that Congress gave us is being met. I need to stand this office up and make sure it’s running at a hundred percent before I leave.”

“We look every day for ways to try to prevent drugs from entering the United States,” he said, adding attention is currently focused on the southwest border, though it is beginning to expand to the northern border and the increasing problem of opium in Afghanistan.

Also among his goals are to ensure that the department “is meeting its responsibilities: To coordinate counternarcotics policy and operations with the Department of Homeland Security, to track and sever the drug terror nexus, to examine the Counternarcotics budget and make three annual reports to Congress.”

In pride of place, across from Dhillon’s desk, is a photo of the San Diego Padres. America’s favorite pastime is his favorite distraction, and it is a telling sign of just how integrated and American he is.

After three generations, a long and arduous journey from Punjab has definitely been worth it.

Dhillon’s 10

Latest book read:
“Lincoln and Gettysburg” by Gary Wells. And I’ve been reading the “National Drug Control Strategy,” if you consider that a book.

Favorite president:
Abraham Lincoln. He had leadership, greatness, strength of character and even, to go a layer below that, management style.

Greatest political thinker:
Ronald Reagan. He converted me to conservatism. It’s becoming clear that he was a deep thinker. He is just now starting to get credit for it.

Greatest Indian leader:
Gandhi. As a Sikh, I don’t think that Sikhs were all that happy with the way India turned out, but I’m an American, so I think he did a good job.

Favorite country to visit:
London, England. If there was one country I wouldn’t mind living in for a year, it’s England. I love the food. Some of the best Indian food you’ve ever had. You can’t go wrong. Very spicy, too. And the culture there was neat.

Movies:
The last movie I saw in the theater was the last “Star Wars” movie. We also watch the Poirot murder mysteries on DVD.

Television:
Well, I do watch Fox News, that sort of thing. I also watch baseball pretty much all the time during baseball season and watch every San Diego Padres game. The last TV show I followed regularly was “ER.” And I’m a big fan of “The Simpsons.”

Activities:
I run marathons. My first was the Marine Corps Marathon (in D.C.). I played softball when I worked on the Hill – that’s great fun. There’s nothing better than playing softball on the (National) Mall on a warm summer evening, even when you’re a lousy player like me.

Favorite monument:
The Lincoln Memorial. It is the best run in the city – run down the Mall, stop at the Lincoln Memorial and read the Gettysburg Address

Originally published by The Indian American, Sept-Oct 2007