Less than a month since Jashanpreet Singh plowed his Freightliner into the backs of multiple vehicles on the 10 Freeway west of the I-215 Interchange, killing three and injuring four others, California officials are preparing to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses the Golden State had granted immigrants and then previously extended in defiance of a federal mandate that the licenses be rescinded.
There has been rancorous partisan bickering between Republicans and the supporters of President Donald Trump, on one side, and Democrats and the supporters of California Governor Gavin Newsom, on the other, over the substantial surge of foreign-born truck drivers in the United States in the last quarter century. At present, roughly 18 percent – 639,000 – of the 3.55 million truck drivers in the United States migrated to the United States. That 639,000 figure is more than twice that of the roughly 310,000 truck drivers from outside the country who were employed as commercial transporters in 2000.
Figures are inexact, but anecdotal information and data extrapolated from incomplete statistics compiled by 21 of the 49 states in North America indicate no more than 22 percent of those drivers – 140,580 – have become naturalized citizens and that approaching 41 percent of those truck drivers – 261,990 – are in the country illegally or as undocumented aliens, as a mere 37 percent of the drivers, other than the ones who have naturalized, roughly 236,430, have visas allowing them to be in or remain in the country.
According to the federal government, three states in particular – California, Washington and New Mexico – have proven to be too lenient in granting foreigners commercial truck driving licenses.
Beginning in May, the Trump Administration’s Transportation Department, under the leadership of Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, took steps to enforce a requirement that truckers speak and read English proficiently. According to the Transportation Department, achieving minimal literacy on the part of truck drivers was a necessary element in a program to improve road safety following incidents in which drivers’ ability to read signs or speak English may have contributed to traffic deaths.
In August, three people were killed when the driver of a semi-truck, Harjinder Singh, attempted to perform an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike in St. Lucie County. Harjinder Singh, who is not believed to be of blood relation to Jashanpreet Singh, like Jashanpreet Singh entered the U.S. illegally and obtained a commercial driver’s license from California, according to the U.S. Marshals office.
A nationwide commercial driver’s license audit by the federal government initiated the following week determined that licenses were issued improperly in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Washington.
Subsequently, the State of Florida sued the states of California and Washington over their issuance of commercial drivers licenses to Harjinder Singh.
The lawsuit accuses California and Washington of refusing to comply with federal safety and immigration-status requirements relating to the issuance of commercial driver’s licenses. The suit says both Pacific Coast states “chose to ignore these standards and authorize illegal immigrants without proper training or the ability to read road signs to drive commercial motor vehicles.”
Later in August, the U.S. government stopped issuing worker visas for commercial truck drivers, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing the change was effective immediately.
“The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” Rubio stated.
The State Department simultaneously said that the hold was being put in place “in order to conduct a comprehensive and thorough review of screening and vetting protocols used to determine the qualifications for a U.S. visa. As we have seen with recent deadly accidents, foreign truckers can pose risks to American lives, U.S. national security, and foreign policy interests. Ensuring that every driver on our roads meets the highest standards is important to protecting the livelihoods of American truckers and maintaining a secure, resilient supply chain.”
California officials, in reaction, said Duffy and other federal officials were overreacting and that positions within America’s vast logistics industry such as those of truck driver represented an excellent entrance opportunity for those immigrants seeking to integrate themselves and their families into American society as newcomers to the country.
In September, when the Transportation Department issued an order, which went into effect on September 26, calling upon individual states to rescind the commercial driver’s licenses they had issued to non-citizens. In doing so, the department referenced three fatal crashes that federal officials said were caused by immigrant truck drivers.
Under that mandate, only three specific classes of visa holders were to be eligible for commercial driver’s licenses. Individual states were also required to verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database before issuing a license. A commercial license issued in this manner is to remain valid only until the expiration date of the visa.
California disobeyed the federal mandate.
Duffy said the Transportation Department had carried out a “spot review” of 145 commercial driving licenses issued to foreigners. Of those, he said, 36 should not have been issued. He said four California commercial driver’s licenses issued to foreigners who at the time were in the country legally should no longer be deemed valid, since those four drivers’ work permits were expired, in at least three cases, more than two years after those expirations, while the truck drivers yet remain in the country illegally. That those individuals were driving trucks and routinely violating federal law should be a cause for concern, including over whether those drivers are flouting traffic laws in multiple states with the same frequency with which they are disobeying federal immigration law, Duffy said. Duffy imposed a $40 million penalty on California for not complying with the English language literacy requirement for truckers. He gave California 30 days to come up with a plan to comply with the mandate relating to delicensing truckers who did not have visas or face the loss of another $160 million in annual federal transportation funding.
“You have 60,000 people on the roads who shouldn’t have licenses,” Duffy said. “They’re driving fuel tankers, they’re driving school buses, and we have seen some of the crashes on American roadways that come from these people who shouldn’t have these licenses.”
California officials took umbrage at Duffy’s statements and suggestions, characterizing them and him as “racist” and “xenophobic.”
On October 21, the 21-year-old Singh was at the wheel of a semi-truck barreling westbound on the 10 Freeway in the number four lane west of the 15 Freeway. The dashcam recovered from the Freightliner’s cab shows he did not brake at all and ran into the back of and obliterated a white Kia Sorento that had been at a full stop for several seconds before the impact and continued with considerable force into the back of a white pickup truck, which careened to the left as the Freightliner continued unabated into the back of another semi-tractor-pulled trailer, the rear of which momentarily lifted into the air upon impact. The only somewhat-diminished momentum of the Freightliner carried it forward as it careened to the right across two lanes of traffic, where it ran into the front of a disabled tractor connected to a long flatbed trailer and the back of the service truck in front of the disabled tractor that were in place on the shoulder of the freeway. The disabled tractor’s front hood was draped open forward and appeared to have been clipped and destroyed along with major elements of the truck’s engine in the collision. A man engaged in repairing the disabled truck was severely injured as a result. Both passengers in the Sorrento were killed and pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of a Toyota Tacoma severely injured in the crash was transported to a hospital, where he died.
A 43-year-old driver of a Dodge Avenger sustained major injuries, while a 57-year-old passenger in a Chevrolet 2500 had a minor injury, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Singh survived the crash with only a minor contusion. Based not only on an objective assessment of his condition after the crash but on the analysis of the dashcam footage, Singh was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, as well as with three counts of vehicular manslaughter.
In the intervening time, toxicology results from an analysis of blood drown from Singh demonstrated the presence of no drugs, alcohol or any type of intoxicants in his system. The driving under the influence counts were dropped, but the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is pressing forward with the three aforementioned counts of manslaughter in addition to three counts of VC23558-E: causing bodily injury or death; and two counts of PC12022.7(A)-E: great bodily injury on a person.
During his first court appearance, it was revealed that Singh was in need of a Punjabi translator for his next court appearance. This was taken as an indication that his skill with English was insufficient to have allowed him to read the California Driver Handbook.
Singh in 2022 came to the United States illegally, entering through Mexico. He was an unregistered alien and went to work that year as a truck driver, despite his age and that he was undocumented. He subsequently applied for asylum, but was yet an unregistered alien.
The federal government under Donald Trump and the State of California under Gavin Newsom engaged in a round of fingerpointing over Singh.
The Department of Homeland Security maintains Singh entered the United States illegally during the Joseph Biden administration and was undeterred. Federal officials say he was able to obtain employment authorization documents and a REAL ID in part on the basis of the commercial carriers license issued to him by the State of California. The Trump Administration further asserts that the State of California violated federal law by allowing Singh’s license to perpetuate in the face of tightening federal regulations which should have terminated is ability to operate a semi-truck and trailer. In June, California issued Singh a restricted, non-domiciled commercial driver’s license with a “K” restriction, limiting his driving to within California. When he turned 21 in October, just days before the October 21 collision, the K restriction was lifted.
California officials faulted the Trump Administration for extending Singh’s work authorization, but said nothing about the Biden Administration’s initial issuance of that authorization. California insisted that it had complied with instructions issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pertaining to issuing commercial driving licenses to noncitizens.
This week, on Wednesday, November 12, California officials announced the California Department of Motor Vehicles will revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses held by immigrants. Authorities said the action was being taken after it was determined the expiration dates on the licenses were later than the dates the drivers were legally permitted to remain in the United States.
Without saying so explicitly, the action by California appeared to be an acknowledgment of the state’s culpability in having issued the licenses to ranting licenses to, Harjinder Singh, who killed three people in the August U-turn incident in Florida, and Jashanpreet Singh, whose operation of the Freightliner on October in Ontario on October 21 killed another three people.
Duffy, in reaction, on Wednesday said California’s action in revoking the 17,000 licenses was tacitly acknowledging the state acted improperly despite its previous denials of having done so.
“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed,” Duffy said. “Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked. This is just the tip of iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.”
Duffy pointed out that California officials took the corrective action only after he had made the threat to withhold transportation funds.
Governor Newsom’s office could not resist accusing federal officials with being responsible for the shortcomings in applying the law relating to foreign truck drivers, stretching the facts and using a modicum of hyperbole along the way.
The drivers whose licenses California is revoking, the governor’s office said, had been granted work authorizations by the federal government. It avoided stating that the federal work permits in most cases were predicated upon the state-issued commercial driver’s licenses or that a significant number of the work permits had been issued by the Biden Administration.
Queried as to why the licenses were being rescinded, the governor’s office said the Department of Motor Vehicles was taking the action as part of a state law enforcement effort. When it was pointed out that many of the expiration dates now being enforced were more than one year, two years and three years past, the governor’s office’s spokesman, Brandon Richards grew testy. He said the law in question was a state stature, not a federal law and its enforcement had nothing to do with federal pressure.
Duffy pointed out that California was not willfully complying with the federal rules and mandates but doing so only because of the threat that it would forego another $160 million in federal funding if it didn’t ensure that those with commercial licenses had met the requirements to remain in the country.
Richards disputed that, saying the state was taking the action unilaterally, without any regard to the federal action or proposed action.
“Once again, the Sean ‘Road Rules’ Duffy fails to share the truth — spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader,” Richards said.
Under the new federal rules put in place in September, at least 180,000 of the 639,000 noncitizens who have commercial licenses would remain qualified to retain them. Those licenses could be issued exclusively to adequately trained drivers who have an H-2a, H-2b or E-2 visa. An H-2a visa is issued to temporary agricultural workers. H-2b visas are applicable to temporary nonagricultural workers. An E-2 visa is provided to those who invest in a U.S.-based business. The federal government compromised by agreeing not to enforce the rules retroactively, such that at least 180,000 drivers will be allowed to keep their commercial licenses until they come up for renewal. In California, some 17,000 foreign-born truck drivers with commercial driving licenses have visas that have already expired. California on Wednesday resolved to being informing them that their licenses will expire in 60 days.