A horrific traffic collision is drawing further attention to the issue of illegal immigration, and particularly how blue states enable crime, violence, and mayhem committed by illegal entrants to the U.S. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) filed three vehicular manslaughter charges against Harjinder Singh, an Indian national and illegal immigrant who had made an illegal U-turn while driving a commercial freight truck. Singh used an opening in the Florida turnpike partition reserved for law enforcement vehicles and reportedly did not signal. Three Americans were subsequently killed when their car collided with the freight trailer, which Singh had positioned widthwise across the highway.

In widely-shared video of the killing of the three Americans, captured from inside Singh’s cab, the illegal immigrant turns to see the car collide with his trailer without any apparent change of facial expression. Later, as emergency response personnel are addressing the collision, Singh looks directly into a camera carried by a bystander and smirks. The FLHSMV confirmed that not only is Singh in the country illegally, but that he was provided a commercial driver’s license (CDL) in 2024 by the Democrat-run state of California. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) later confirmed that the state of Washington also provided Singh with a CDL in 2023.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that an investigation has been launched, targeting both Singh and the trucking company illegally employing him, White Hawk Carriers, Inc. Part of that investigation found that Singh does not speak English and does not recognize or understand American traffic signs. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Singh failed a basic English language proficiency (ELP) test, scoring only two correct answers out of 12; likewise, when administered a test to identify highway traffic signage, Singh only answered one question correctly.

“If states had followed the rules, this driver would never have been behind the wheel, and three precious lives would still be with us. This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures,” Duffy said in a statement. “Non-enforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier, resulting in unqualified foreign drivers improperly acquiring licenses to operate 40-ton vehicles.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, Jessica Vaughan, director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, said, “This was a horrifying event, and even more so to see the driver’s nonchalant demeanor while it happened. While this man is responsible for his foolish and incompetent actions, and he should face consequences, this is also a failure of state motor vehicle credentialing systems.” She continued, “This man should not have been given a regular driver’s license, much less a commercial truck driver’s license. He was clearly a threat to the safety of others on the road, not being able to understand English or highway signs.”

“California’s standards clearly are inadequate to maintain safe roadways. Their system has failed in its most basic responsibility, because the convenience of illegal aliens who want driver’s licenses is more important to this agency’s leaders than the safety of everyone else on the road,” Vaughan stressed. “The federal government should impose some form of sanctions on California and other states with weak regulations until they improve them.”

Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told TWS, “Just as states issue driver’s licenses, they also issue CDLs. States are not supposed to issue CDLs to a person unless they are a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (green card holder). There seems to be a loophole for a state to issue a CDL to someone who is merely authorized to work in the U.S.” Ries noted that the first administration of President Donald Trump “denied Harjinder Singh’s application for work authorization, but the Biden administration later granted his request. That could be enough to exploit this CDL loophole in a willing state.”

“First, the federal government should close this loophole under its interstate commerce clause and federal immigration authority,” Ries asserted. “Second, the Department of Homeland Security should not issue work authorization unless and until the underlying immigration benefit application (such as asylum) is granted, not merely filed.”

Currently, many illegal immigrants who were paroled into the U.S. during the tenure of then-President Joe Biden and shielded from deportation by programs like temporary protected status (TPS), asylum claims, or refugee claims are eligible to receive work authorization as soon as they file an application for the programs shielding them. Ries concluded, “Too many fraudulent immigration benefit applications are filed solely to obtain work authorization. Making such authorization contingent on the underlying benefit being granted would significantly reduce benefit fraud and shrink the application backlogs.”

Of note, Trump signed an executive order which went into effect in June, enforcing a law requiring CDL applicants and drivers be proficient in English and be able to identify, read, and understand U.S. traffic signage. In July, New Mexico State Police stopped Singh for speeding but did not administer an ELP test in compliance with federal law.

The charges against Singh come as the DOJ announced charges Tuesday against another Indian national for attempting to traffick illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Canada border, crashing his car while trying to evade U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents and sending his five pieces of human cargo to the hospital.