By COREY WILLIAMS
A 21-year-old semitruck driver accused of being beneath the affect of medicine and inflicting a fiery crash that killed three folks on a southern California freeway is within the nation illegally, U.S. Homeland Safety officers stated Thursday.
Jashanpreet Singh was arrested and jailed after Tuesday’s eight-vehicle crash in Ontario, California, that additionally left 4 folks injured.
He faces three counts of vehicular manslaughter whereas intoxicated and driving beneath the affect inflicting harm, the San Bernardino District Lawyer’s workplace stated.
Singh is scheduled for arraignment Friday. The district lawyer’s workplace stated he doesn’t but have a lawyer.
Singh, of Yuba Metropolis, California, is from India and entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 throughout the southern border, Homeland Safety stated Thursday in a submit on X.
That revelation prompted Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to restate earlier considerations about who ought to be capable to get hold of business driver’s licenses. Duffy and President Donald Trump have been urgent the problem and criticizing California ever since a lethal Florida crash in August was attributable to an immigrant truck driver the federal authorities says was within the nation illegally.
The Transportation Division considerably restricted when noncitizens can get business driver’s licenses final month.
California’s Freeway Patrol stated in a launch that visitors westbound on Interstate 10, about 26 miles west of San Bernardino, had slowed about 1 p.m. Tuesday when a tractor-trailer didn’t cease, struck different automobiles and brought about a chain-reaction crash.
Dashcam video from the tractor-trailer obtained by KABC-TV reveals the truck slamming into what seems to be a small, white SUV within the freeway’s heart lane. It continued ahead, plowing into a number of different automobiles, together with one other truck. It then crossed over two lanes earlier than crashing into an already-disabled truck on the freeway’s proper shoulder.
Flames may be seen erupting alongside the tractor-trailer because it crosses the 2 proper lanes.
California Freeway Patrol Officer Rodrigo Jimenez says the company has seen the KABC video and believes it’s dashcam video from the truck that brought about the crash.
“This tragedy follows a disturbing sample of felony unlawful aliens driving business automobiles on American roads, straight threatening public security,” Homeland Safety stated Thursday in its X submit.
Lethal crash in Florida
In August, a truck driver made an unlawful activate Florida’s Turnpike, about 50 milesnorth of West Palm Seaside, and was struck by a minivan. Two passengers within the minivan died on the scene, and the motive force died at a hospital.
Homeland Safety has stated that truck driver, Harjinder Singh, was in america illegally. Florida authorities stated he entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2018.
Homeland Safety stated Harjinder Singh obtained a business driver’s license in California, which is considered one of 19 states, along with the District of Columbia, that difficulty licenses no matter immigration standing, based on the Nationwide Immigration Legislation Middle.
The Trump administration has pointed to the Florida crash whereas sparring with California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In April, Trump issued an government order saying truckers who don’t learn and communicate the English language proficiently can be thought of unfit for service.
“A driver who can’t perceive English is not going to drive a business car on this nation. Interval,” Duffy stated the next month.
Below the brand new Transportation Division guidelines imposed final month, solely noncitizen drivers who’ve three particular visas are allowed to qualify for business licenses. And states will probably be required to confirm their immigration standing. Solely drivers who maintain both an H-2a, H-2B or E-2 visa will qualify. H-2B is for non permanent nonagricultural staff, whereas H-2a is for agricultural staff. E-2 is for individuals who make substantial investments in a U.S. enterprise
The licenses will solely be legitimate for as much as one 12 months except the applicant’s visa expires before that.
On Thursday, Duffy known as the California crash “outrageous” in a social media submit.
“That is precisely why I set new restrictions that prohibit ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS from working vehicles,” he wrote on X. “@CAgovernor should be part of each different state within the U.S. in imposing these new actions to stop any extra accidents and deaths.”
Activist sees bias towards immigrant drivers
Bhupinder Kaur, director of operations for UNITED SIKHS, stated the New York-based humanitarian reduction nonprofit, is alarmed by what it sees as rising bias involving immigrant drivers.
It was not instantly clear Thursday afternoon if Jashanpreet Singh is Sikh.
“Legislation enforcement and hasty social media posts continually rush to call, {photograph}, and expose immigration standing, whereas comparable particulars about non-immigrant drivers stay withheld,” Kaur informed The Related Press in an e mail Thursday. “The discretion officers cite as ‘privateness’ elsewhere appears to fade when the motive force is an immigrant.”
Immigrant truckers make up almost one in 5 long-haul drivers, Kaur continued, including that almost all are totally licensed and law-abiding.
“But they face unequal scrutiny and protection,” Kaur stated. “Selective transparency distorts public understanding and may even affect authorized outcomes.”
Related Press author Luis Andres Henao contributed from Princeton, New Jersey.
Initially Revealed: