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The illegal immigrant truck driver accused of causing a crash that killed three people in Florida was given a work permit under the Biden administration, officials said Monday.
Harjinder Singh, who was arrested on Saturday in Stockton, California, on three counts of vehicle homicide, entered the United States illegally and his work authorization was rejected under the Trump Administration on September 14, 2020, said Tricia McLaughlin, the Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ACCUSED OF KILLING 3 IN FLORIDA HIGHWAY CRASH CROSSED BORDER INTO CALIFORNIA IN 2018: DHS
Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old illegal alien from India who was arrested on Aug. 16, 2025, allegedly attempted to make an unauthorized U-turn in Ft. Pierce, Florida on Tuesday, resulting in a crash that killed three people. (United States Marshals Service)
McLaughlin noted Singh’s work approval in response to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said the first Trump administration “confirmed that this guy meets federal and state immigration requirements — YOU issued him a work permit (EAD).”
“As usual, the Trump Administration is either lying or clueless,” Newsom’s press office wrote on X.
McLaughlin noted that the federal government doesn’t issue commercial driver’s licenses.
“False. Harjinder Singh is in the United States illegally and his work authorization was rejected under the Trump Administration on September 14, 2020,” she wrote. “It was later approved under the Biden Administration June 9, 2021. The state of California issues Commercial Drivers Licenses. There is no national CDL. Sincerely, Genius.”
Singh, who officials believe crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018, obtained his commercial driver’s license in California despite his illegal status in the U.S.
ILLEGAL ALIEN ACCUSED OF CAUSING FATAL SEMI TRUCK CRASH THAT KILLED 3 PEOPLE: ‘SHOCKING AND CRIMINAL’
Image provided by United States Marshals Service (USMS) San Francisco shows Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old illegal alien from India who was arrested on August 16, 2025. Singh allegedly attemptied to make an unauthorized U-turn in Ft. Pierce, Florida on Tuesday, resulting in a crash that killed three people. (United States Marshals Service)
He remains in custody on both state vehicular homicide charges as well as immigration violations.
Singh was driving a commercial truck with a trailer on the Florida Turnpike in Fort Pierce when he allegedly attempted a U-turn in an unauthorized area. The move resulted in the trailer jackknifing and colliding with a minivan — leaving all three of the minivan’s passengers dead, according to officials.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the three deaths could have been avoided if California had followed federal immigration laws.
Gavin Newsom and Donald Trump (Getty)
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“3 innocent people were killed in Florida because Gavin Newsom’s California DMV issued an illegal alien a Commercial Driver’s License,” she wrote Monday on X. “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.”
