In a bizarre yet unsurprising turn of events, an illegal immigrant named Harjinder Singh, originally from India, highlighted an unfortunate gap in the U.S. regulatory system, leading to a tragic mishap in Florida. Now extradited from California, Singh stands accused of causing a deadly accident resulting in three American deaths. The real question on everyone’s minds is: how did Singh, clearly unqualified, manage to obtain a commercial driver’s license (CDL) in not one, but two U.S. states?
The timeline of this surreal journey began in September 2020 when Singh, while under the first presidency of Donald Trump, applied for work authorization. That request was promptly denied. When Singh reapplied in June 2021, now under the Biden Administration, astonishingly, the application was approved. Fast forward to July 2023, and Singh, who shouldn’t have been authorized in the first place, magically obtained a full-term CDL in Washington State. One wonders if the approval process involved anything more than a casual glance at paperwork.
Of course, the absurdity doesn’t stop in Washington. California soon followed suit, granting Singh a nondomiciled residence and limited term CDL despite his legal status. This begs the question: are these states competing to be the most lenient in bypassing immigration laws? As if in a farcical race, New Mexico State Police, who later stopped Singh for speeding, discovered his now infamous incompetency: failing an English language proficiency test and unable to read traffic signs. Instead of taking action, it seems they shrugged and waved him along. A real gold standard for road safety right there.
The Department of Transportation, under Secretary Sean Duffy, finally stepped in, acknowledging the disastrous implications of such regulatory oversights. With foreboding tones hinting at investigations and “painful” consequences, one can only hope that states like Washington, California, and New Mexico start taking federal regulations seriously. After all, letting individuals who can’t understand road signs operate heavy machinery creates more danger than a squirrel on a rampage in a nut factory.
To add another layer to the absurd, questions arise about the trucking company that hired Singh. It appears implausible that they overlooked Singh’s legally dubious status—yet they let him drive, jeopardizing lives on American roads. Expecting accountability might feel like waiting for pigs to fly, but there is hope that these carriers will face strict consequences. In the end, one thing is clear: when adding reckless legal loopholes to an already chaotic immigration policy, the result is nothing short of disastrous, and it’s high time America put the brakes on this madness.
