A truck driver accused of killing three people after making an unlawful U-turn is an illegal migrant who obtained a commercial driving license in the sanctuary state of California.
Harjinder Singh, an Indian national living unlawfully in the country, has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide after allegedly making an illegal U-turn on Tuesday along a Florida highway, resulting in three fatalities, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Singh allegedly made the turn through an “Official Use Only” access point in St. Lucie County, blocking all lanes with his truck and causing a deadly wreck.
The Trump administration is placing blame squarely on California — a state with strict sanctuary laws on the books — for allowing the illegal migrant to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License.
“Three innocent people were killed in Florida because Gavin Newsom’s California Department of Motor Vehicles issued an illegal alien a Commercial Driver’s License — this state of governance is asinine,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a public statement. “How many more innocent people must die before Gavin Newsom stops playing games with the safety of the American public?”
Harjinder Singh. DHS image.
“We pray for the victims and their families. Secretary Noem and DHS are working around the clock to protect the public and get these criminal illegal aliens out of America,” McLaughlin continued.
Florida State Troopers obtained a criminal arrest warrant for Singh on three counts of vehicular homicide, according to a press release from the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Through their investigation in coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Florida investigators determined Singh entered the U.S. unlawfully in 2018 through the U.S.-Mexico border and subsequently obtained a Commercial Driver’s License in California.
The full circumstances around how Singh obtained a Commercial Driver’s License is not immediately clear. An ICE detainer request has since been lodged for the Indian national, DHS confirmed.
The deadly accident has sparked further debate on illegal immigration and how to effectively manage those who unlawfully cross into the U.S. The DHS press release further stated that California Gov. Gavin Newsom “put Americans’ lives directly at risk” for allowing Singh to operate a “40-ton killing machine” on American highways, framing it as a “reckless policy.”
Responding to the DHS statement, a spokesperson for Newsom’s office hit back at the Trump administration.
“Why don’t you ask Trump about the driver’s federally issued work permit and when he entered this country? Spoiler alert: it was in 2018 under Trump — whoops,” Newsom’s spokesperson stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“He would have been eligible in any state. California followed federal law, something the President knows nothing about,” Newsom’s spokesperson continued.
The incident marks the latest back-and-forth between the Trump administration and California’s Democratic leaders.
In addition to numerous sanctuary cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, the entire state of California has implemented laws that severely hamper cooperation between government officials and federal immigration authorities, deeming the Golden State a sanctuary haven for illegal migrants. The Trump administration has since waged lawsuits against Los Angeles and a slate of other sanctuary cities, aiming to force ICE compliance.
The California DMV did not respond to a request for comment about the incident or provide figures on how many Commercial Driver’s Licenses their office has bestowed to illegal migrants.
However, experts in the industry say such a number may be too cumbersome to identify.
“The number of illegal immigrants in trucking is almost impossible to know,” Justin Martin, a truck driver for over 15 years who has since served as an expert commentator on the trucking industry, stated to the DCNF. “Even California has no idea how many non-domiciled CDLs they’ve issued, or if they do know, they’re not releasing those numbers publicly, which is why [Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy] is doing the audit.”
In June, Duffy announced the Department of Transportation would launch a nationwide audit into state policies issuing non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses to unqualified individuals. The audit made particular mention of the Biden-era border crisis, leading to “serious allegations” of the trucking licensing system being exploited.
Since a California law largely allowing illegal migrants to obtain driver’s licenses went into effect in 2015, more than one million undocumented migrants have obtained licenses throughout the state and hundreds of thousands of them have renewed their licenses, according to CalMatters.
Allegations of licensing fraud within California DMVs have existed for years.
In July 2019, two California DMV employees were convicted of bribery, identity fraud and unauthorized computer usage after unlawfully issuing licenses to unqualified drivers. In August 2015, a California DMV employee pled guilty to a scheme that involved altering driving tests into passing scores in exchange for financial benefit.
“There is an incredible amount of corruption within the DMVs, especially in California,” Danielle Chaffin, a trucking industry expert, stated to the DCNF. “If you look at the Google reviews for some of the commercial driver testing sites, it gives you a nice glimpse into the train wreck.”
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