A terrible collision involving a semi-truck on the Florida Turnpike that killed three people has sparked a heated political fight between the Trump administration and California Governor Gavin Newsom. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) gave Harjinder Singh, an Indian citizen, a commercial driver’s license (CDL). He was said to be an undocumented immigrant.
Singh tried to do an illegal U-turn in a part of the turnpike that was only for official usage, which caused his trailer to jackknife and hit a minivan traveling from the other direction. The three people in the minivan died.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) soon spoke out against what happened and went after Governor Newsom’s policies. DHS said on X, “Three innocent people were killed in Florida because Gavin Newsom’s California DMV gave an illegal alien a Commercial Driver’s License—this state of governance is asinine.” The department promised to work “around the clock to protect the public and get rid of illegal immigrants who are criminals.”
The White House also spoke out, saying that Singh was “an Indian national given a commercial driver’s license by the so-called ‘sanctuary state,’ whose reckless policies put American lives at risk every day.” The statement went on to say that Newsom was wrong for saying that issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants “improves public safety” as a way to explain his policies.
In response, Governor Newsom’s press office pointed out that Singh’s immigration history began when Trump was president. It is said that Singh broke the law and came to the U.S. in September 2018. The Border Patrol then arrested him. In January 2019, he was released on a $5,000 immigration bail after saying he was “afraid of going back to India.” Since then, his immigration case has been on hold.
The event brings up a bigger political and policy argument of whether or not undocumented immigrants should be able to get driver’s licenses. California and 18 other states, as well as the District of Columbia, give out driver’s licenses to people no matter what their immigration status is. People who support these kinds of regulations, like Governor Newsom, say they make the public safer by making sure that all drivers are tested, licensed, and insured. Opponents, such as the Trump administration, say that these policies encourage people to come to the U.S. illegally and put public safety at risk by giving official documents to people who are not legally in the country.