Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has exposed the state of California’s “significant compliance failures” with non-citizen commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) following a deadly crash allegedly caused by an illegal migrant truck driver from India.
Jashanpreet Singh, 21, was charged Thursday by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office with three counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of DUI causing injury in the eight-vehicle pileup, ABC7 reported.
A Los Angeles County high school basketball coach and his wife were killed, with Pomona High School identifying the victims as Clarence Nelson and his wife, Lisa. The third victim’s identity was not publicly released by Friday.
Another four motorists were injured, according to ABC7.
A disturbing video of the crash was shared online by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), noting that Singh had entered the U.S. through the southern border and was released into the country during the Biden administration:
“My prayers are with the families of the victims of this tragedy. It would have never happened if Gavin Newsom had followed our new rules,” Duffy said in a statement obtained by Breitbart News. “California broke the law and now three people are dead and two are hospitalized. These people deserve justice. There will be consequences.”
A report from the Department of Transportation (DOT) shows every step where California let Singh obtain his CDL against the department’s policies put in place following the state’s “significant compliance failures” revealed by a recent audit that found that 25 percent of non-domiciled CDLs sampled were issued improperly.
On June 27, then 20-year-old Singh, claiming to be an asylum seeker, was issued a restricted, non-domiciled CDL. The license included a “K restriction,” which limited him to in-state operation, DOT said.
On September 26, Duffy formally notified California of its compliance failures after a department audit revealed the staggering amount of improperly-issued CDLs. To fix the issue, DOT required California to pause issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, identify all unexpired non-domiciled CDLs that fail to comply with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations, and to revoke and reissue all noncompliant non-domiciled CDLs if they comply with the new federal requirements.
That same day, the FMCSA issued an emergency rule to significantly strengthen standards for the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, stating that non-citizens are not eligible for non-domiciled CDLs unless they meet stricter standards. The new requirements included possession of an employment-based visa and undergoing a mandatory federal immigration status check using the SAVE system.
The new rule specifically prevents all so-called asylum seekers from getting non-domiciled CDLs — or so it should have.
When Singh turned 21 in October, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) removed the “K restriction” on his license and upgraded his driving privileges, despite the stricter FMCSA rules.
That same week, Duffy announced that the Trump administration was planning to withhold $40 million from California for ignoring the “English language requirements for truckers.”
Just one week later, Singh allegedly operated a semi-truck under the influence of drugs when he struck a line of stopped vehicles, killing three people and injuring four more.
If California had complied with the Trump administration’s stricter standards for issuing CDL’s, Singh would have never been able to operate that semi-truck, a DOT spokesperson said.
The agency noted that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was explicitly warned that his state’s CDL program was a danger.
Newsom shoved the blame onto the Trump administration in a statement to Fox News, with a spokeswoman saying, “This is a tragic situation. And as with every tragedy over the last ten months, Secretary Noem has ordered Secretary Duffy to look for every opportunity to manipulate the facts to score cheap political points, but the FEDERAL government needs to look within before they cast blame outside.”
“The FEDERAL government approved and renewed this individual’s FEDERAL employment authorization multiple times — which allowed him to obtain a commercial driver’s license in accordance with FEDERAL law,” she added.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
