The White House has sharply criticized California after an undocumented Indian-born truck driver, Jashanpreet Singh, was implicated in a fatal eight-vehicle crash in Ontario that claimed three lives.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called attention to what she described as a “disturbing pattern” of commercial driver’s licenses being granted to individuals in the country without legal status, raising concerns about road safety and state-level oversight.
“I can confirm that California gave this individual a license, and it is something that the Department of Transportation has already looked into… He killed three people, and he first entered the United States in 2022 through the southern border, and he was released into our country by the previous administration,” Leavitt said, addressing the matter in a press conference.
“So now ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has lodged a separate detainer for this individual, and these tragedies are following a disturbing pattern of these criminal illegal aliens being issued commercial vehicle licenses. And so, yes, the Department of Transportation is absolutely cracking down on that,” she added.
Leavitt added that the Department of Transportation has begun tightening regulations on the issuance of commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens, following a comparable deadly incident last month, signaling a broader federal push to prevent such accidents.
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Singh, 21, who was driving a semi-truck, is accused of being under the influence when his vehicle sparked a fiery collision on a Southern California freeway, claiming three lives. U.S. Homeland Security officials confirmed on Thursday that Singh was living in the country without legal authorization.
Singh was taken into custody following Tuesday’s crash in Ontario, California, which injured four others. He now faces three charges of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, as well as additional counts for driving under the influence resulting in injury.
Dashcam footage from Singh’s truck captured the terrifying sequence of events: the semi first collided with a small white SUV in the center lane, then barreled into multiple other vehicles, including another truck, before veering across two lanes and ultimately smashing into a disabled truck on the freeway’s right shoulder.
Police reported that Singh did not apply his brakes before plowing into the traffic, and toxicology results confirmed he was under the influence of drugs at the time.
“He was eventually transported to the hospital, and he was checked out by the medical staff, and our officers determined he was driving under the influence of drugs,” said CHP Officer Rodrigo Jimenez, as quoted by ABC7 News.
Singh is set to be arraigned on Friday, and the district attorney’s office noted that he has not retained legal representation. A resident of Yuba City, California, Singh hails from Punjab and, according to Homeland Security, entered the United States illegally in 2022 via the southern border, as confirmed in a Thursday post on X.
Authorities say Singh entered the United States across the southern border in 2022. His first contact with Border Patrol came in March 2022 in California’s El Centro Sector, but he was released into the country under the Biden administration’s “alternatives to detention” program, which allows undocumented immigrants to remain free while awaiting their immigration hearings.
This is not an isolated incident. Earlier in August, a deadly crash in Florida involved a truck driver who, according to the Trump administration, was living in the U.S. illegally. Since then, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has reiterated longstanding concerns over who should be eligible for commercial driver’s licenses. Both Duffy and President Donald Trump have used the incidents to criticize California’s licensing policies.
Earlier in August, a similar crash in Fort Pierce, Florida, involved an Indian-born driver, Harjinder Singh, who was accused of causing a collision that claimed three lives. Officials say Harjinder Singh had entered the United States illegally in 2018 and later obtained a commercial driver’s license in California.
Florida authorities investigating the case discovered that Singh had failed the commercial driver’s license knowledge test in Washington state ten times between March 10 and May 5, 2023. Records also show he was unsuccessful twice on the air brakes portion of the exam.
Harjinder Singh is also reported to have failed both his English and road sign exams. He previously pleaded not guilty in court. On October 15, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy highlighted that many truck drivers do not meet the required English language standards, a shortfall his department is now actively addressing.