The U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating three blue states’ possible involvement in an Aug. 12 fatal car crash in Florida that killed three.
Illegal immigrant truck driver Harjinder Singh stands accused of causing the crash by making an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike 19 miles north of Fort Pierce in St. Lucie County.
He was given a work permit in the Biden administration, officials said Monday.
According to the Transportation Department’s preliminary investigation, Washington state, New Mexico, and California all may have violated federal regulations in allowing Singh to have a commercial driver’s license.
“States MUST FOLLOW THE RULES,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on the social media platform X. “If they had, this driver would NEVER have been behind the wheel, and three precious lives would still be with us.”
Washington state improperly issued the driver a full-term commercial driver’s license, Duffy said, which asylum-seekers and illegal aliens are not allowed to receive.
New Mexico failed to conduct an English Language Proficiency test when the driver was pulled over for speeding, even though ELP tests have been required since June 25.
Duffy is also looking into California’s issuance of the driver’s CDL.
“The failures here are despicable,” he said. “Nonenforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier, resulting in unqualified foreign drivers improperly acquiring licenses to operate 40-ton vehicles.”
The Washington, New Mexico, and California Departments of Transportations did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom denied fault. “As usual, the Trump administration is either lying or clueless,” Newsom’s press office wrote on X.
The Trump administration requires commercial drivers to speak English, which the president made America’s national language in an executive order.
Duffy promised to release more details on the investigation into the crash soon.