A tragic crash between a tractor-trailer and a minivan that killed three people has become entangled in the highly partisan and emotionally charged political commentary swamping traditional and social media.
On the afternoon of Aug. 12, tractor-trailer driver Harjinder Singh attempted to make an illegal u-turn across the median of the Florida Turnpike near Fort Pierce. His trailer blocked both lanes and a minivan slammed into it, killing two passengers; the driver survived but later died in a hospital.
Singh was arrested and charged with three counts of vehicular homicide.
Horrific as that was, that’s not what set off the storm of vitriolic comments that has consumed many on social media, including those posting on behalf of the White House and the Department of Homeland Security.
It wasn’t that Singh made a horrendous driving mistake, but that he is an immigrant in the U.S. illegally and somehow received a commercial drivers license from the state of California.
Numerous media reports say Singh entered the country from Mexico in 2018. He was arrested but released on $5,000 bond in 2019. He is said to have been seeking asylum because he feared for his safety in his home country of India, and has been in the immigration system since.
After that, Singh obtained a California CDL, though there appears to be no solid information as to how he did.
This is what set off the storm of accusations and counter-accusations mostly between members of the Trump Administration and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The incident adds fuel to the animus Newsom and the Trump Administration, which sent National Guard troops and U.S. Marines into Los Angeles earlier this summer. California has been a constant target of ICE agents detaining people suspected of being in the country illegally.
The White House issued a statement Monday which said:
“The illegal alien is an Indian national who was granted a commercial driver’s license by the so-called “sanctuary state” of California, whose reckless policies put the lives of American citizens at risk every single day. But instead of acknowledging the tragedy, criminal illegal alien sympathizer Gavin Newsom callously doubled down, claiming that giving driver’s licenses to illegals “improves public safety.”
“While Democrats put criminal illegal aliens over the Americans they claim to represent, the Trump Administration provides no such safe harbor and is seeking to place the individual into removal proceedings.”
“How many more innocent people have to die before Gavin Newsom stops playing games with the safety of the American public?” asks the Department of Homeland Security. “We pray for the victims and their families. Secretary Noem and DHS are working around the clock to protect the public and get these criminal illegal aliens out of America.”
Noem made a post of her own on X, formerly Twitter:
“3 innocent people were killed in Florida because Gavin Newsom’s California DMV issued an illegal alien a Commercial Driver’s License. This gut wrenching tragedy should have never happened. My team at @DHSgov will work with @USDOT to root out and prevent illegal aliens from obtaining these licenses from sanctuary jurisdictions that put American drivers and passengers in danger.”
Newsom’s office said Singh enter the U.S. in 2018, when Donald Trump was president for the first time. The governor’s office added that a person can only get a legitimate CDL if they have a lawful presence in the state.
A major trucking industry advocacy group also weighed in on the issue.
The American Trucking Associations Chief Operating Officer Dan Horvath issued this statement:
“This is a horrific tragedy that should never have happened. While an investigation is underway, this driver’s blatant disregard for highway safety and the rules of the road makes clear he should never have been behind the wheel to begin with. Initial reports from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles that the driver was in the U.S. illegally only raise more questions about how and why he was able to obtain a commercial driver’s license in the first place — questions that the state of California must answer for.
“This incident underscores the importance and urgency of the work that the Trump Administration is doing to audit CDL issuances nationwide, in addition to its enhanced enforcement of English language proficiency — a fundamental requirement for operating commercial vehicles in interstate commerce.”
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