Deporting truck driver after fatal Turnpike crash wouldn’t be justice. Here’s why | Opinion

One area where many Americans find agreement with President Donald Trump is that undocumented immigrants who commit crimes should be deported. People who entered the country illegally and commit serious crimes should be treated differently than those who are generally law-abiding despite an illegal immigration status.

But when should undocumented criminals be deported? That question relevant in the case of the trucker charged with three counts of vehicular homicide in connection to a horrific accident on Florida’s Turnpike last week. Immediate deportation, no matter how appealing an idea, would deny justice to his alleged victims.

The crash was caused by a semi-truck driver who, according to federal authorities, is an undocumented migrant from India. The case has ignited an online feud between the Trump administration and the governor of California — the state that issued the man a commercial driver’s license. However, the details of Harjinder Singh’s true immigration status remain murky, given that the federal government granted him a work permit as recently as April, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Rather than weaponizing this case to justify Trump’s immigration agenda, the focus should be on seeking accountability for these three deaths. Singh should remain in this country to answer to the charges filed against him.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said he wants Singh, who’s been booked in jail in California, to serve time “behind bars for as long as possible” before he’s handed over for deportation. If, indeed, Singh goes to trial and is found guilty — and he remains innocent until proven otherwise — that would be the right course of action.

The crash happened when Singh tried to make a U-turn at an “official use only” area of Florida’s Turnpike in St. Lucie County, crossing over into oncoming traffic as a minivan approached, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The minivan plowed into the truck, killing three people, among them a 54-year-old Miami man.

The accident was captured by a dash camera that showed Singh casually making the U-turn, placing the truck across all lanes of traffic as the minivan slammed into the truck’s trailer. Moments later, the driver is captured standing outside the vehicle, looking on as first responders worked the scene.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday Singh’s demeanor after the crash was disturbing.

“... It was almost like, you know, he’s walking down the sidewalk, maybe stubbed his toe, just kind of like it was, it didn’t register to him, and I’m like, ‘That is really cold,’” he said at a news conference.

Watching the video is infuriating and heartbreaking. To understand why Singh was allowed behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler, the public needs to separate political rhetoric from facts, which will probably become clearer as more information comes out.

Although California allows undocumented immigrants to apply for noncommercial driver licenses, the state still requires applicants for a commercial driver’s license to show proof of legal presence in the U.S.

FHP has said Singh entered the country illegally through the Mexican border in 2018, during Trump’s first presidency. He had a work authorization rejected in 2020, when Trump was still in office, and then approved in 2021, during the Biden administration, Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security posted on X.

The San Francisco Chronicle obtained a copy of Singh’s most recent federal work permit that showed it was issued April 9 and is set to expire in 2030. The document also shows he had an ongoing asylum case, which would have made him eligible for work authorization under federal law, the Chronicle reported. It’s common practice for states to accept work permits granted under an asylum case as proof of residency for commercial driver licenses.

Trump and DeSantis are using this horrible crash on the Turnpike as an opportunity to talk about so-called “open borders” and blue states that are too lenient to undocumented immigrants. Rather than focusing on politics, let’s concentrate on what should happen next. Singh is entitled to due process, and the families of his alleged victims deserve to know what happened. An online argument about blue versus red states won’t accomplish either.