A group of Ohio Republican members of Congress want answers from California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom on the illegal immigrant semi-truck driver involved in a deadly head-on collision in Brown County, Ohio.
The semi-truck driver, 39-year-old Manjit Singh from India, was arrested and charged with aggravated vehicular homicide following the head-on crash Sept. 2 on U.S. Route 68.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer with Brown County Jail the day after Singh was arrested.
According to jail records, Singh remains in the Brown County Jail on the immigration hold. He made his initial court appearance Sept. 18 for aggravated vehicular homicide. His bond was set at $250,000 cash only.
U.S. Reps. Dave Taylor of Clermont County, Max Miller of Bay Village, Warren Davidson of Miami County, Jim Jordan of Champaign County and Michael Rulli of Salem sent a joint letter to Newsom, looking to hold his state accountable for issuing Singh’s non-domiciled commercial driver’s license.
“Illegal immigrants have no place in our country, let alone on our nation’s roads behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound truck. Legal CDL drivers across the United States undergo rigorous training and pass skills and knowledge tests to prove they meet the qualifications needed to operate a commercial motor vehicle,” the joint letter states.
Taylor, who led the Sept. 18 letter to Newsom, has introduced several bills this Congress addressing commercial license standards for non-citizens.
California has come under fire from the Trump administration and U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for unlawfully issuing commercial licenses to thousands of illegal immigrants.
“When states like California ignore these qualifications and issue CDLs to individuals like Mr. Singh, the failed policies cause devastating consequences and lead to the death of innocent Americans,” the letter continues. “California’s sanctuary state policies, which you have long championed, are continuing to cause havoc and devastation across the United States. It is as dangerous as it is unacceptable.”
Ohio state troopers said Singh attempted to pass another vehicle on the two-lane highway and collided head-on with a car driven by 50-year-old Brenda Watson of West Union, Ohio. The mother of two died at the scene, WLWT 5 News reported.
The accident occurred on U.S. 68 in Pleasant Township in rural southern Ohio about 50 miles east of Cincinnati. While passing another northbound vehicle, Singh’s semi-truck struck Watson’s vehicle head-on in the southbound lane.
LeAnn Shepherd was driving the vehicle being passed and spoke to WLWT, describing it as “the most horrifying thing you can see.”
According to the criminal complaint, Singh was speeding excessively and driving on the wrong side of the road, with “ample time and space to merge back.”
The Congressmen said “the community is left reeling after this senseless loss of life.”
In the wake of the crash, the lawmakers are demanding information on how Singh obtained a CDL in an effort to “prevent future accidents from happening in our communities, keep our nation’s roads safe, and provide transparency for the victim’s family.”
The Congressmen requested the following information from Newsom regarding the issuance of Singh’s CDL:
- What steps did the state DMV take to ensure that Singh was lawfully granted a CDL?
- Was Singh granted a CDL with an expiration date after the expiration date of the legal presence documents provided to the California DMV? If so, what steps will California take to prevent this from happening again?
- Did California know that Singh was in the country illegally?
- Were the proper tests of both English proficiency and road sign knowledge done before granting this CDL? What were the results of those tests?
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Singh illegally entered the country through Arizona in October 2023. He was encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol but released by the Biden administration.
In July 2024, he applied for work authorization, which was granted by the Biden administration a month later. Singh was issued a CDL by the state of California.
Led by Congressman Taylor, the lawmakers asked Newsom for a commitment to work with the Trump Administration to ensure future CDL issuance is in accordance with federal regulations.
In September 2025, the DOT formally notified California of significant compliance failures after an audit revealed one in four non-domiciled CDLs sampled were improperly issued, according to a DOT news release.
The DOT pressured state officials to revoke more than 20,000 CDLs that were unlawfully issued or failed to comply with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations, but a class-action lawsuit challenged the cancellations.
“It is disheartening that the State of California did not prioritize ensuring that United States citizens obtain CDLs,” the letter states. “Instead, your state allowed more than twenty-five percent of non-domiciled CDLs to be improperly issued, including Mr. Singh’s. Last week’s tragedy sadly proves yet again that additional oversight is needed in states like California.”
Based on the audit findings, the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued non-domiciled CDLs to drivers who were not eligible or with expiration dates extending past drivers’ legal work authorizations. In some cases, they issued the license without first validating the drivers’ lawful presence.
Congressman Taylor has been a strong proponent of tighter regulations for non-domiciled CDLs and English proficiency standards for truck drivers, introducing Connor’s Law, the Non-Domiciled CDL Reporting Act, the VERIFY Act, the REVOKE Act and the Commercial Motor Vehicle English Proficiency Act.
