California is making ugly headlines again after a 21-year-old semi-truck driver and Indian illegal immigrant caused a fiery crash that killed three people in Southern California.
Jashanpreet Singh was driving an 18-wheeler — reportedly under the influence of drugs — on the I-10 Freeway in Ontario, Calif., on Tuesday when he plowed into slow-moving traffic. The Indian national crossed the southern border in 2022 and was released by the Biden administration.
The chain-reaction crash involved multiple vehicles and killed three people in a car that was left almost unrecognizable after the crash. Local authorities arrested Singh on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence.
According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also lodged an arrest detainer for Singh after the crash.
Singh was first encountered by U.S. Border Patrol agents in California’s El Centro Sector in March 2022 and released into the interior of the country pending an immigration hearing, DHS said.
“It is a terrible tragedy three innocent people lost their lives due to the reckless open border policies that allowed an illegal alien to be released into the U.S. and drive an 18-wheeler on America’s highways,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “This accident follows a disturbing trend of illegal aliens driving 18 wheelers and semi-trucks on America’s roads.”
Dash camera footage obtained by ABC7 News captured the crash, which left three dead and four others injured. In total, eight cars were damaged, including semis shown stopped all over the highway.
The footage, from Singh’s dash camera, shows the truck slamming into the back of an SUV before plowing into multiple other vehicles in the same lane. The video is now the subject of a law enforcement investigation, ABC7 reported.
On Wednesday, ABC7 Eyewitness News learned one of the victims was identified as a 54-year-old man from Upland. His name hasn’t been released. The remaining two were severely burned in the crash and have not been identified yet.
Singh was reportedly living in Yuba City in Northern California, ABC7 reported.
Singh doesn’t appear to hit the brakes before slamming into the traffic jam, and toxicology tests confirmed his impairment leading to the DUI arrest, law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC7.
“He was eventually transported to the hospital, and he was checked out by the medical staff, and our officers determined he was driving under the influence of drugs,” said CHP Ofc. Rodrigo Jimenez.
The crash closed the westbound lanes of the freeway for several hours on Tuesday, and responding officers reported a “horrific” scene. The incident remains under investigation.
“This is sadly a reminder of how precious life is, and how fast it could be taken away at the hands of somebody who is driving irresponsibly, somebody who is impaired,” Jimenez told ABC7. “The hardest part is knowing that at least three of these individuals will not have a Christmas, will not make it home as we’re getting to the holiday season.”
Fox News reported that Singh was released under the “alternatives to detention” policy, one of several instances where illegal immigrants released pending hearings went on to commit a crime.
Accident reports from across the country reveal a concerning trend of serious crashes involving illegal immigrant truck drivers in the U.S., directly threatening public safety, DHS said.
In Florida, Harjinder Singh, who crossed the southern border illegally in 2018, is accused of making an illegal U-turn that caused a crash and killed three people. He obtained a commercial driver’s license in California. Officials investigating the wreck said he failed English and road sign tests, Fox News reported.
In September, the Department of Transportation issued new, stricter rules for non-citizens to obtain a commercial driver’s license in the U.S.
The Trump administration also announced last week that it plans to withhold more than $40 million in federal highway safety funding from California for failing to comply with federal English language proficiency standards for commercial truck drivers.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also recently gave an ultimatum to states to enforce language requirements for CDL licenses. Duffy took to social media to speak out on Tuesday’s deadly crash in California.
🚨This is OUTRAGEOUS.
This is exactly why I set new restrictions that prohibit ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS from operating trucks. @CAgovernor must join every other state in the U.S. in enforcing these new actions to prevent any more accidents and deaths. https://t.co/phJYKLun8Y
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) October 23, 2025
“This is OUTRAGEOUS. This is exactly why I set new restrictions that prohibit ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS from operating trucks,” Duffy shared on X. “@CAgovernor must join every other state in the U.S. in enforcing these new actions to prevent any more accidents and deaths.”
In another X post, he took aim at California Gov. Gavin Newsom for playing politics: “Unacceptable! Lives have been lost over California’s failure to enforce my new rules for obtaining licenses to operate trucks.”
Unacceptable! Lives have been lost over California’s failure to enforce my new rules for obtaining licenses to operate trucks. @CAgovernor MUST put politics aside and enforce these commonsense rules to prevent any more tragic deaths on AMERICAN ROADS.https://t.co/Ys3HxL6mFY https://t.co/cuOPYPKTQ9
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) October 23, 2025
Earlier last week, ICE lodged a separate detainer for an illegal alien from Serbia who killed a 54-year-old man on an Indiana highway.
Borko Stankovic, 41, of Lyons, Ill., was operating a semi-truck without a valid commercial driver’s license when he swerved into oncoming traffic and hit a Subaru Crosstrek. The Subaru driver, Jeffrey Eberly, died at the scene.
ICE lodged the detainer following Stankovic’s arrest on Oct. 15 for reckless homicide and criminal recklessness. Police who responded to the crash said Stankovic possessed a suspended Illinois CDL, which belonged to a family member, but didn’t have a valid CDL himself.
Stankovic has been in the United States illegally since February 2011, when his nonimmigrant visa status expired. Previously, Stankovic was arrested by the Nassau County Police Department in Long Island, New York, for resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration, DHS said.
“This senseless tragedy should NEVER have happened, and this man should still be alive today,” McLaughlin said regarding the Indiana crash. “Illegal aliens have no business operating 18 wheelers or semi-trucks on America’s highways. President Trump and Secretary Noem are making America’s roads safe again.”
