“Despicable” failures by state officials enabled the illegal-migrant truck driver who killed three Americans on a Florida turnpike, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
“States MUST FOLLOW THE RULES. If they had, this driver would NEVER have been behind the wheel and three precious lives would still be with us,” Duffy tweeted on Tuesday.
The August 12 crash killed three Americans when the illegal-migrant driver, Harjinder Singh, steered his 18-wheeler through a U-turn on a Florida turnpike. Singh is one of many migrants who use loose federal and state laws to drive trucks on the nation’s highways. Some estimates claim that 80,000 low-wage migrants are working for myriad transport companies, even though many of the drivers cannot read English or understand road signs.
“Here’s what we know,” Duffy tweeted:
1. Washington State improperly issued the driver a full-term CDL. Asylum seekers or illegal aliens are NOT allowed to receive this!
2. New Mexico failed to conduct an English Language Proficiency test when they pulled the driver over for speeding. Had they done this, the driver would not have been on the road!
3. We are also looking into California’s issuance of the driver’s CDL.
States MUST FOLLOW THE RULES. If they had, this driver would NEVER have been behind the wheel and three precious lives would still be with us.
The failures here are despicable. Non-enforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier, resulting in unqualified foreign drivers improperly acquiring licenses to operate 40-ton vehicles.
“This cannot happen again,” Duffy said. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration “is launching an investigation into both the driver and [his employer] White Hawk Carrier.”
Since April, Duffy has taken some steps to deal with the problem of illegal drivers. For example, Duffy revived enforcement of a federal law that requires drivers to be able to read English. Federal officials had stopped enforcing the law in the last months of President Barack Obama’s administration.
But most of the drivers get their licenses and employment from trucking companies in “sanctuary states” that favor business interests over Americans’ civil right to have their border laws enforced.
A video shows little emotional reaction by the Indian-born driver as three Americans died:
Immigration lawyers, however, are eagerly defending their legal process that killed the three American victims.
“The man had a work permit because he applied for asylum, and under regulations dating back decades he is permitted to work legally while he awaits a decision,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an advocate for the pro-migration American Immigration Council.
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