U.S. immigration authorities have once again flagged an Indian American truck driver, adding to a growing list of similar cases. The individual, who does not have legal status in the country, is now expected to be processed for deportation.
In a public notice issued this week, the U.S. Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector in Arizona said Quartzsite police stopped a man after he allegedly ran a red light and a stop sign. Authorities later identified him as Sukhdeep Singh, an Indian national who was living in the United States without legal status.
Border Patrol officials said Singh’s nationality was confirmed after Quartzsite officers contacted agents from the Blythe Station.
As authorities took Singh into custody, they discovered he was carrying a California commercial driver’s license despite being in the country without legal status.
“Singh will be processed for deportation under 8USC 1182,” the U.S. Border Patrol said in a post shared on Wednesday.
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The agency also included a photo of Singh along with his California commercial driver’s license in the social media post, effectively putting the arrest of the undocumented immigrant on public display.
Singh’s case adds to the intensifying scrutiny around truck drivers found with California commercial driver’s licenses. Just over a week earlier, the Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector said on its official social media account that enforcement actions by Blythe Station agents had led to the arrest of six “illegal aliens from India.”
Border Patrol officials said the pattern was the same in each case, with the truck drivers found carrying commercial driver’s licenses despite not having legal status in the United States.
“All were processed for deportation, forfeiting their chance to legally re-enter the US,” Yuma Sector officials said in a post on X.
The agency also used the post to point out that voluntary departure remains an option through the CBP Home app. Officials said choosing to leave the country on one’s own through the government platform could preserve the possibility of legally returning to the United States in the future.
The Trump administration remains locked in a high-profile fight with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team over the state’s handling of commercial driver’s licenses. The controversy escalated sharply after a deadly incident on the Florida Turnpike, where Harjinder Singh, an Indian national, attempted an illegal U-turn and collided with a minivan, killing three passengers.
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Harjinder’s case set off a chain reaction, with a growing number of similar incidents involving Indian truck drivers who were in the United States illegally coming to public attention. The issue reached a new flashpoint in November 2025, when the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a sharply worded news release titled “NEWSOM CAUGHT REDHANDED.”
In that release, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy accused the California Department of Motor Vehicles of illegally issuing 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses to what he described as “dangerous foreign drivers.” In response, the Trump administration said it would move to revoke all of those licenses.
The pressure on California has continued to mount. Earlier this month, Duffy announced that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration would withhold $160 million in safety program funding from the state. The move followed California’s failure to meet a Jan. 5 deadline to cancel the more than 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses cited in the federal findings.