White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that California issued a commercial driver’s license (CDL) to an illegal immigrant truck driver charged in a fatal DUI crash that killed three people.
“I can confirm that California gave this individual a license, and it is something that the Department of Transportation has already looked into,” Leavitt said. “I know Secretary Duffy, who’s doing a phenomenal job, has spoken on this many times in the crackdown that the Department of Transportation is taking on these licenses that are wrongfully being issued to people who clearly do not deserve to uphold these positions.”
Leavitt said the individual first entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 “and was released into our country by the previous administration.”
She added that the Department of Transportation (DOT) was cracking down on the issuing of CDLs amid a “disturbing pattern” of them being given to illegal immigrants.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER ACCUSED IN FATAL CALIFORNIA CRASH RELEASED BY BIDEN ADMIN AFTER 2022 BORDER CROSSING
Jashanpreet Singh, a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from India, was accused of driving while intoxicated and causing a crash that left three people dead. He has since been arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated after allegedly plowing his big rig into slow-moving traffic on the I-10 Freeway in San Bernardino County.
Multiple federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that Singh was first encountered by Border Patrol agents in California’s El Centro Sector in March 2022 and released into the interior of the country pending an immigration hearing.
Police say Singh never hit the brakes before slamming into the traffic jam, citing toxicology tests that confirmed impairment.
“This is a tragic situation,” a spokeswoman for Gov. Gavin Newsom said to Fox News Digital. “And as with every tragedy over the last ten months, Secretary Noem has ordered Secretary Duffy to look for every opportunity to manipulate the facts to score cheap political points, but the FEDERAL government needs to look within before they cast blame outside.”
“The FEDERAL government approved and renewed this individual’s FEDERAL employment authorization multiple times – which allowed him to obtain a commercial driver’s license in accordance with FEDERAL law,” she added.
The Biden administration approved Singh’s work permit. Illegal immigrants can apply for work authorization 180 days after making their asylum claim. Singh was caught and released at the border in March 2022. He has been in asylum proceedings ever since. Additionally, acquiring a work permit would not require California to issue an individual a CDL, nor would it give an individual the right to one.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER ACCUSED OF KILLING THREE PEOPLE FAILED ENGLISH, ROAD TEST SIGNS: DOT
The incident comes just months after a similar fatal crash involving an illegal immigrant truck driver.
On Aug. 12, Harjinder Singh allegedly made an illegal U-turn in an unauthorized area on the Florida Turnpike, colliding with a minivan and killing three people. He was arrested in California, where he fled after the deadly crash, and was extradited to Florida.
Singh crossed into the U.S. illegally in 2018 through the southern border and was able to obtain a CDL in California. The first Trump administration rejected his request for work authorization in September 2020, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
On Oct. 15, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) would withhold over $40 million from California after a probe revealed that the state failed to comply with English Language Proficiency standards.
In response to a video of the incident, Duffy said, “This is exactly why USDOT has withheld $40 MILLION from California for failure to comply with our rules to protect drivers. We cannot allow our roads to be a dangerous place!”
Fox News Digital reached out to DOT for comment.
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