Deadly crash in California renews federal criticism of migrant truck drivers

A 21-year-old truck driver accused of being under the influence of drugs and causing a crash that killed three people on a Southern California highway is in the country illegally, Department of Homeland Security officials said Thursday.

Jashanpreet Singh was arrested and jailed after an eight-car crash Tuesday in Ontario, California, that also injured four people.

He faces three counts of manslaughter while driving while intoxicated and driving under the influence causing injury, the San Bernardino District Attorney’s Office said.

Singh is scheduled to stand trial on Friday. The district attorney’s office said he does not yet have a lawyer.

Singh, of Yuba City, Calif., is from India and entered the United States illegally in 2022 through the southern border, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday in a post on X.

The revelation prompted Transport Minister Sean Duffy to reiterate previous concerns about who should be able to obtain commercial driver’s licences. Duffy and President Donald Trump have been pressing the issue and criticizing California since a fatal accident in Florida last August caused by an immigrant truck driver who the federal government says was in the country illegally.

He watches: Duffy says states should revoke commercial driver’s licenses from foreigners who overstay their visas

The Department of Transportation imposed significant restrictions on when noncitizens can obtain commercial driver’s licenses last month.

Duffy said this week’s incident would not have happened if Newsom had followed these new rules.

“These people deserve justice. There will be consequences,” he said in a statement.

Newsom’s office responded that the federal government approved Singh’s federal work permit multiple times, and that allowed him to obtain a commercial driver’s license in accordance with federal law.

Westbound traffic on Interstate 10, about 26 miles (42 kilometers) west of San Bernardino, slowed around 1 p.m. Tuesday when a tractor-trailer failed to stop, striking other vehicles and causing a chain-reaction collision, the California Highway Patrol said in a statement.

Dashcam video from the tractor trailer, obtained by KABC-TV, shows the truck crashing into what appears to be a small white SUV in the center lane of the interstate. It continued forward, striking several other vehicles, including another truck. It then crossed two lanes before crashing into an already disabled truck on the right shoulder of the highway.

Flames could be seen erupting next to the tractor trailer as it crossed the right lanes.

California Highway Patrol Officer Rodrigo Jimenez says the agency watched the KABC video and believes it was the dash cam video from the truck that caused the crash.

“This tragedy follows a troubling pattern of illegal criminal aliens driving commercial vehicles on U.S. roadways, directly threatening public safety,” the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday in its Bulletin X.

Fatal accident in Florida

In August, a truck driver made an illegal turn on Florida’s Turnpike, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of West Palm Beach, and was struck by a pickup truck. Two passengers in the minibus died at the scene, while the driver died in hospital.

The Department of Homeland Security said the truck driver, Harjinder Singh, was in the United States illegally. Florida authorities said he entered the United States illegally from Mexico in 2018.

The Department of Homeland Security said Harjinder Singh obtained a commercial driver’s license in California, one of 19 states, plus the District of Columbia, that issues licenses regardless of immigration status, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

The Trump administration referenced the Florida incident while sparring with California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In April, Trump issued an executive order stating that truck drivers who are not fluent in English would be deemed ineligible for duty.

“A driver who doesn’t understand English would not drive a commercial vehicle in this country. Period,” Duffy said the following month.

Under new Department of Transportation rules imposed last month, only noncitizen drivers with three specific visas are allowed to qualify for commercial licenses. Countries will be required to verify their immigration status. Only drivers with an H-2a, H-2B, or E-2 visa are eligible. The H-2B is for temporary non-agricultural workers, while the H-2a is for agricultural workers. E-2 is for people who make significant investments in U.S. businesses

Licenses will only be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner than that.

On Thursday, Duffy called the incident in California “outrageous” in a social media post.

“This is exactly why I put in place new restrictions preventing illegal immigrants from operating trucks,” he wrote on X. “California’s governor must join every other state in the United States in implementing these new measures to prevent more accidents and deaths.”

Activist sees bias against immigrant drivers

The New York-based humanitarian relief non-profit is concerned about what it sees as growing bias involving migrant drivers, said Bhupinder Kaur, director of operations at UNITED SIKHS.

It was not immediately clear Thursday afternoon whether Jashanpreet Singh was Sikh.

“Law enforcement and hasty social media posts are constantly quick to name, photograph and expose immigration status, while similar details about nonimmigrant drivers remain obscured,” Kaur told The Associated Press in an email Thursday. “The discretion that officials refer to as ‘privacy’ elsewhere appears to disappear when the driver is an immigrant.”

Immigrant truck drivers make up nearly one in five long-haul drivers, Kaur continued, adding that most are fully licensed and law-abiding.

“However, they face unequal scrutiny and coverage,” Kaur said. “Selective transparency distorts public understanding and can even influence legal outcomes.”

Associated Press writers Luis Andres Henao in Princeton, New Jersey, and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed.