The DOT on Friday released a "bombshell" report stating that California ignored a new federal rule limiting non-domiciled CDLs for non-citizens by licensing driver Jashanpreet Singh just days before his crash on I-10 killed three and injured two more.
That comes after California's had federal funding pulled for failure to enforce English language proficiency standards, with DOT explicitly ordering the state to stop issuing non-domiciled CDLs and revoke potentially as many as 15,000 wrongly issued.
"My prayers are with the families of the victims of this tragedy. It would have never happened if Gavin Newsom had followed our new rules," DOT Secretary Sean Duffy said in a release. "California broke the law and now three people are dead and two are hospitalized. These people deserve justice. There will be consequences.”
DOT laid out a timeline of events leading up to Singh's crash on October 21, when the 21-year old "was operating a semi-truck under the influence of drugs on a California freeway when he struck a queue of stopped vehicles and fatally injured three people."
On June 27, just two days after DOT's implementation of President Donald Trump's executive order mandating English language proficiency for all truck drivers, California issued Singh an intrastate-only CDL.
Next, DOT put out its emergency rulemaking on September 26 seeking to purge nearly 200,000 non-domiciled drivers from the industry and restricting non-domiciled CDL issuance for non-citizens to H-2A, H-2B or or E-2 visa holders.
[Related: Lawsuit seeks to block DOT's purge of 194,000 non-domiciled drivers]
Not only did the rule require all states to pause non-domiciled CDL issuance until they could comply with the new standards, but California got a special formal notice as the most "egregious" violator of federal CDL issuance standards. DOT ordered California to do the following:
- Pause issuance of non-domiciled CDLs.
- Identify all unexpired non-domiciled CDLs that fail to comply with FMCSA regulations.
- Revoke and reissue all noncompliant non-domiciled CDLs if they comply with the new federal requirements.
DOT's formal rulemaking estimated California had made mistakes -- for instance, allowing CDL terms to outlast drivers' legal presence in the U.S. -- on about a quarter of some 60,000 issued.
On October 15, Jashanpreet Singh turned 21, and California's Department of Motor Vehicles removed the intrastate-only "K restriction" on his license, upgrading Singh’s driving privileges.
"This removal was an 'upgrade' under federal regulations," DOT wrote. "However, California processed the upgrade to Singh’s non-domiciled CDL without applying the stricter standards as required by the emergency rule."
Just six days later on October 21, Singh got behind the wheel and three died when he failed to slow down, his truck slamming into a long line of traffic from behind.
"If California had complied with the Secretary’s emergency rule and prevented the upgrade of Singh's driving privileges, Singh would have been required to return to the DMV (on or after October 15) to have the 'K' restriction removed and upgrade his CDL," DOT wrote. "At that time, Singh would have been subject to the emergency rule and found ineligible to retain the non-domiciled CDL due to Singh’s status as an asylum seeker."
Overdrive reached out to California DMV about DOT's statement and got the following post from California's STA in response:
"MISINFORMATION ALERT: The state does not determine commercial driver’s license eligibility," California's STA wrote on social media. "The FEDERAL government approves and renews all FEDERAL employment authorization documents that allows individuals to work and obtain commercial driver’s licenses."
California has long maintained it complies with all federal rules on CDL issuance and stated it checks a federal database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security before issuing CDLs.
[Related: Homeland Security explains how 'illegal aliens' get CDLs in the U.S.]
California DMV has not responded to Overdrive queries about evidence DOT showed of California-issued non-domiciled CDLs that outlast the applicant's length of legal stay in the country.
On the same day Singh got his CDL upgraded in California, DOT pulled $40 million in federal Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program funding from the state, citing its refusal to enforce ELP standards.
California's State Transportation Agency, in a letter responding to the move, defended itself by saying that since the CDL skills test must be taken in English, it doesn't need to enforce ELP at roadside.
Overdrive will update this story with any further comment from California state agencies.
