By Frank Ulom
FLORIDA (CONVERSEER) – An Indian national living unlawfully in the United States has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide after allegedly causing a deadly crash in Florida, renewing debate over illegal immigration and state licensing laws.
Harjinder Singh, who investigators say entered the country illegally through the U.S.–Mexico border in 2018, is accused of making an unlawful U-turn with his truck on Tuesday along a St. Lucie County highway. According to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Department, Singh turned through an “Official Use Only” access point, blocking all lanes and triggering a collision that killed three people.
Florida State Troopers, working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), confirmed Singh held a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) issued by California, a state with long-standing sanctuary laws. An ICE detainer has since been lodged against him.
Federal–State Blame Game
The Trump administration immediately faulted California’s policies for enabling Singh to operate as a commercial driver.
“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,” said Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
She added: “How many more innocent people must die before Gavin Newsom stops playing games with the safety of the American public?”
In response, a spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom pushed back, arguing Singh’s legal presence in the U.S. began during the Trump presidency.
“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,” the spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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They further claimed California had “followed federal law” in issuing Singh a licence and said he would have been eligible to apply in any state.
Sanctuary State Spotlight
California, which has granted more than one million driver’s licences to undocumented migrants since 2015, has long been at the centre of a political battle over sanctuary policies. These laws limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities and apply statewide in addition to being adopted in major cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The Trump administration has previously filed lawsuits against multiple sanctuary jurisdictions, seeking to compel compliance with ICE detainer requests.
CDL System Under Scrutiny
The case has reignited scrutiny of commercial driver licensing in the U.S. In June, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a nationwide audit of state policies that allow non-domiciled CDLs, citing concerns that the system is being exploited amid record levels of illegal immigration.
Industry experts say the scale of undocumented migrants operating in trucking is difficult to quantify.
“The number of illegal immigrants in trucking is almost impossible to know,” said Justin Martin, a trucker with over 15 years of experience. “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.”
Corruption within California’s DMV system has also been previously documented. In 2019, two DMV employees were convicted of issuing licences illegally, while earlier scandals linked staff to schemes altering test scores for payment.
Danielle Chaffin, a trucking industry analyst, added: “There is an incredible amount of corruption within the DMVs, especially in California. If you look at the Google reviews for some of the commercial driver testing sites, it gives you a glimpse into the train wreck.”
The California DMV has not commented on Singh’s case or confirmed how many CDLs have been issued to undocumented residents.
