ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FL– An illegal alien charged with killing three people in Florida was denied bond on Saturday.
The carnage caused by blue state and blue city sanctuary policies continued after it was revealed last week that an illegal alien who was somehow able to obtain a commercial driver’s license (CDL) attempted to make a U-turn on the Florida Turnpike, turning in front of a minivan headed in the same direction in the passing lane.
The crash, which occurred on August 12, resulted in the deaths of all three occupants in the minivan, Fox News Digital reports.
Harjinder Singh, 35, an illegal alien from India, was arrested and is facing deportation after the devastating crash, which was captured on the tractor-trailer’s video camera system. After the crash, Singh appeared unconcerned about what he had just done.
Singh was somehow able to obtain a CDL in California. He is now facing three charges of vehicular homicide in connection with the fatal crash, a news release from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) said.
The White House, which has been deporting illegal aliens as fast as they are able (and courts allow), weighed in on the crash.
“This is a devastating tragedy made even worse by the fact that it was totally preventable,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital in an email. “Illegal aliens that have no legal right to be in our country certainly should not be granted commercial driver’s licenses.”
The truck’s video captured Singh operating a commercial tractor-trailer on the Florida Turnpike in Fort Pierce, turning into a cut-through designated for emergency vehicles only from the right lane. As he turned, the video captured the minivan in the left lane slamming into the trailer with enough force to actually move the trailer slightly sideways. The minivan was destroyed, giving the three occupants little chance of survival. Singh showed absolutely no concern in the video captured after the crash.
“Gavin Newscum’s pro-illegal alien policies have deadly consequences,” Jackson added. “Yet he continues to double down and put illegals over American citizens.”
Singh illegally crossed the US-Mexico border in 2018 and is being held without bond. An ICE detainer has been issued, according to an X post from the official White House Rapid Response account.
“The actions taken by the defendant while operating a commercial tractor-trailer are both shocking and criminal,” FLHSMV Executive Director Dave Kerner said in a statement. “Three people lost their lives as a result of his recklessness, and countless friends and family members will experience the pain of their loss forever.”
In 2013, California passed a law that allows California residents to obtain a driver’s license, regardless of immigration status.
According to America Truck Driving School, to get a California CDL, one must:
- Possess a high school diploma or GED
- Preserve a good driving record
- Have a Class D license for at least 1 year and in good standing
- Be at least 18 years old to drive in-state, 21 to drive state-to-state
- Possess proof of California residency
- Possess a Social Security card
- Be able to show proof of insurance
- Pass a 10-year background check
- Pass TSA screening
- Pass a medical examination
- Pass periodic drug tests
It is unknown how someone who broke into the country in 2018 could pass a 10-year background check.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) weighed in on the crash and slammed California law for Singh having a CDL, CW-34 reported.
“That should have never happened. He should never have been here. He certainly shouldn’t have gotten a commercial driver’s license from California,” DeSantis said.
The US Marshals Service announced this week that Singh and a passenger fled to California after the August 12 crash. Singh was picked up on Aug. 16 in Stockton, California, following a tip from the Florida Highway Patrol. He was taken into custody without incident and booked into the San Joaquin County Jail.
Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the speed of Singh’s arrest, calling him a “dangerous illegal alien” and slamming California’s sanctuary policies for letting him get a license.
“Sanctuary states like California must end their lawless policies to protect innocent American lives,” Bondi said.
The New York Post reported Tuesday that Singh flunked English fluency and road test sign tests following the Florida crash, the US Department of Transportation said. He was only able to answer two of the 12 questions correctly by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration after the April 12 crash.
When asked to read highway signs and their meanings, Singh could only identify one of the four signs he was shown, the DOT announced Tuesday.
Despite that, Singh held CDLs in both California and Washington State.
“This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.
“Non-enforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier, resulting in unqualified drivers improperly acquiring licenses to operate 40-ton vehicles.”
In May, Duffy signed an order to bolster federal law that requires CDL license holders to be able to speak English “sufficiently” to converse with the public and read road signs. President Trump. That order came after President Trump announced an executive order requiring truck drivers must be able to read and write English.
The Florida crash is just the latest such incident involving an illegal alien operating a tractor-trailer, resulting in death.
In June 2024, Ignacio Cruz-Mendoza, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was operating a tractor-trailer on Highway 285 just outside of Conifer, Colorado, when he drove off the road, causing his truck to roll over, Denver 7 reported. The truck’s cargo of pipes and angle iron spilled on the roadway, striking a car operated by Scott Miller, 64, killing him. Miller was only six miles from home at the time of the crash. Cruz-Mendoza had been deported twelve times, ICE officials told the outlet. Cruz-Mendoza was found guilty and given a whopping one year in jail. Upon his release, he was picked up by immigration authorities.
In June 2019, an illegal alien from Ukraine, Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, 26, was operating a commercial truck in Randolph, New Hampshire. While there is some dispute as to the actual fault in the crash, seven motorcyclists were killed in the accident. Zhukovskyy was acquitted in the case despite having taken heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine earlier on the day of the crash. After the acquittal, he was picked up by ICE, which had an immigration detainer on him.
Yet another case, this one in Austin, Texas, involves a foreigner, although his immigration status is unknown.
On March 13, 2025, Solomun Weldekeal-Araya was driving in a work zone on I-35 in Austin. He struck over a dozen vehicles, with the result being five innocent people dead, Fox7 in Austin reported. Weldekeal-Araya was charged with five counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault, authorities said. The accident scene stretched for over a tenth of a mile, police said. The five people killed included a child and an infant.
Witnesses said traffic was at a near stop when a yellow tractor towing a semi-trailer with an Amazon logo plowed through over a dozen vehicles without slowing. The car containing the two children and two adult victims was so badly mangled that fire department personnel had to use extrication devices to remove them from the vehicle.
As for the truck driver, police said he spoke primarily Tigrinya, a language spoken in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, but also understood and spoke English.
Meanwhile, there are hundreds of cases nationwide involving illegal aliens killing innocent people while operating with licenses granted by sanctuary jurisdictions. Or with no licenses at all. And then putting them in 40-ton weapons is a recipe for disaster.
The issue isn’t limited to only the United States. In 2019, a man who entered Canada illegally but was granted permanent residency drove his tandem tractor-trailer through a stop sign at 53-60 mph, striking a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team, killing 16 and injuring 13 in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, The Daily Mail reported.
Jaskirat Sing Sidhu, an Indian, was sentenced to only eight years in prison, but was paroled after four years, four months behind bars. It was later determined that Sidhu had committed 70 violations of federal and provincial trucking regulations in only the 11 days leading up to the crash. Canada pulled his permanent residency last year and he was ordered deported. That order is currently under appeal.
Credit: Source link
