Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) continues to refuse cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement, and now three people are dead. Until he reverses course and directs state inspectors to enforce the Trump administration’s new, stringent commercial driver’s license regulations, expect more innocent people to be killed.
Dashcam footage from Jashanpreet Singh’s semitruck is horrifying. The illegal immigrant, who was released into the country by former President Joe Biden’s “alternatives to detention” program in March 2022, can be seen barreling down the I-10 freeway east of Los Angeles toward a line of cars, and then he hits them, causing a devastating chain reaction that left three dead and four injured.
California is famously lax in issuing commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants who entered the country illegally. Last September, an illegal immigrant who had been issued a work permit by the Biden administration and a commercial driver’s license by California killed three people after making an illegal U-turn in Florida.
A Transportation Department investigation revealed that the driver failed an English language proficiency assessment, providing correct responses to just two of 12 verbal questions, and accurately identifying only one of four highway traffic signs. Federal motor carrier vehicle regulations require foreign commercial drivers to be proficient in English, but then-President Barack Obama ended enforcement of this in 2016.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reinstated it for commercial drivers this April, but enforcement is left up to states. Duffy followed his new regulation with an audit of state compliance with commercial driver’s license regulations and found that 25% of all commercial driver’s licenses obtained by foreign drivers in California were improperly issued.
“Licenses to operate a massive, 80,000-pound truck are being issued to dangerous foreign drivers — oftentimes illegally,” Duffy said when releasing the audit’s results. “This is a direct threat to the safety of every family on the road, and I won’t stand for it.”
That same day, Duffy announced that California had 30 days to comply with federal trucking regulations, including roadside testing of the renewed English proficiency requirement, or the Transportation Department would withhold $160 million in federal highway funds from the state.
“California’s reckless disregard is frankly disgusting and an affront to the millions of Americans who expect us to keep them safe,” Duffy said. “We owe it to the American people to ensure only lawful, qualified drivers are operating big rigs on our highways.”
It is an outrage that after two fatal crashes caused by illegal immigrants with California commercial driver’s licenses, the state still refuses to let inspectors and law enforcement personnel, such as the California Highway Patrol, administer English proficiency tests.
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California’s reckless defiance of federal law has already cost innocent lives. The Newsom administration’s sanctuary policies, its willingness to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, and its lax enforcement of federal commercial licensing standards are a deadly combination.
When the federal government restores safeguards designed to keep unqualified drivers who cannot read English off the road, it should not have to beg California to comply. Lives are at stake. If Newsom refuses to put public safety ahead of political posturing, the Transportation Department should follow through on its threat to withhold federal highway funds until California enforces the law and stops licensing danger on wheels.