The White House confirmed that California issued a commercial driver’s license (CDL) to Jashanpreet Singh, an illegal immigrant accused of killing three people in a DUI crash. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the issue, stating that the Department of Transportation (DOT) is actively addressing concerns about the issuance of CDLs to individuals who do not meet the necessary criteria. The case has sparked widespread debate about the safety and enforcement of driver licensing standards, especially in the context of federal immigration and transportation policies.
Jashanpreet Singh, a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from India, was accused of driving while intoxicated and causing a crash that left three people dead. He has since been arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated after allegedly plowing his big rig into slow-moving traffic on the I-10 Freeway in San Bernardino County. Multiple federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that Singh was first encountered by Border Patrol agents in California’s El Centro Sector in March 2022 and released into the interior of the country pending an immigration hearing.
Police say Singh never hit the brakes before slamming into the traffic jam, citing toxicology tests that confirmed impairment. Pomona High School on Thursday identified two of the deceased victims of the crash as one of their assistant basketball coaches, Clarence Nelson, and his wife. The incident comes just months after a similar fatal crash involving an illegal immigrant truck driver.
On August 12, Harjinder Singh allegedly made an illegal U-turn in an unauthorized area on the Florida Turnpike, colliding with a minivan and killing three people. He was arrested in California, where he fled after the deadly crash, and was extradited to Florida. Singh crossed into the U.S. illegally in 2018 through the southern border and was able to obtain a CDL in California. The first Trump administration rejected his request for work authorization in September 2020, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
On October 15, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) would withhold over $40 million from California after a probe revealed that the state failed to comply with English Language Proficiency standards. In response to the incident, Duffy stated,