AFTER ROAD DEATHS, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MOVES TO STOP CALIFORNIA FROM ISSUING COMMERCIAL DRIVER’S LICENSES TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. On Aug. 12, the driver of a tractor-trailer truck made an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike near Fort Pierce. It was a crazy, out-of-the-blue move, and the stunned driver of a minivan driving nearby was not able to stop before crashing into the truck, which was blocking all southbound lanes of the turnpike. The driver and two passengers in the minivan were killed.
Authorities quickly determined that the truck driver, 28-year-old Harjinder Singh, was an Indian who was in the United States illegally, having crossed into the U.S. from Mexico in 2018. Even though Singh was in the country illegally, and even though he had limited knowledge of English, and even though he failed a driving test 10 times, the state of California, like the state of Washington earlier, issued him a commercial driver’s license. That is how Singh came to be driving so dangerously on the Florida Turnpike.
Two months later, on Oct. 21, another semitruck driver who was in the U.S. illegally caused a crash that killed three people in Southern California. Authorities say 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh crossed illegally into the U.S. in 2022. Even though he was in the country illegally, and even though federal officials had warned California about its issuance of commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, the state gave Singh a license. That is how he came to be driving so dangerously in Southern California.
The two cases raised obvious questions about California’s issuance of commercial driver’s licenses. California is one of 19 states that issue driver’s licenses regardless of an applicant’s immigration status. In the cases of both Harjinder Singh and Jashanpreet Singh, California issued what is called a non-domiciled commercial driver’s license, that is, a license granted to a driver who does not live in the state.
On Wednesday, the federal Department of Transportation took action against California. “U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy announced today that the California Department of Motor Vehicles has admitted to illegally issuing 17,000 non-domiciled Commercial Drivers Licenses to dangerous foreign drivers,” the department said in a press release. “Thanks to the Federal Motor Center Safety Administration’s ongoing audit, each of these licenses is being revoked.”
Duffy placed the blame squarely on California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and the state’s lenient policies. “After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed,” Duffy said in a statement. “Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked. This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.”
CALIFORNIA REVOKES 17,000 ILLEGALLY ISSUED LICENSES AFTER DUFFY EMERGENCY ORDER
Newsom denied any problems with California’s system but has gone along with the revocation of the 17,000 licenses. The governor’s spokesman mocked the secretary as Sean “Road Rules” Duffy, a reference to his appearances on an MTV reality show 27 years ago. Newsom’s spokesman also accused Duffy of lying “in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader,” using a favorite Resistance phrase for President Donald Trump.
It was standard Newsom trolling. But this is serious stuff, with six people dead in just two crashes in Florida and California. Between those crashes, the federal government issued new rules making it much more difficult for California and other states to grant licenses to unqualified immigrants. Newsom and his team can mock all they want, but the Trump administration is doing the right thing to bring a new measure of safety to America’s roads.