Transportation Department tightens non-citizen truck driver rules after fatal crash in Florida

The Transportation Department will immediately tighten up the requirements for non-citizens to get commercial drivers licenses after three fatal crashes this year that officials say were caused by immigrant truck drivers who never should have received licenses.

The nationwide audit of these licenses began after a fatal U-turn crash in Florida that killed two people caused by a truck driver who officials said was in the country illegally. But Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said fatal crashes caused by truck drivers who shouldn’t have had licenses were also found in Texas and Alabama earlier this year.

Duffy also threatened to revoke $160 million in federal funding for California because investigators found that one in four of the 145 commercial drivers licenses for non-citizens issued since June that they reviewed should have never been issued under the current rules. That state has 30 days to audit its program and come up with a plan to comply or it will lose funding.

Duffy said the current rules aren’t strict enough and a number of states aren’t following them. The audit found licenses that were issued improperly in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington.

“We have a government system designed to keep American families on the road safe. But that system has been compromised,” Duffy said.

Previously, Duffy threatened to pull some federal funding from California, Washington and New Mexico for failing to enforce English proficiency requirements for truckers that went into effect this summer. The Transportation Department is still reviewing the responses from those states.

All states must pause issuing commercial drivers licenses to non-citizens until they can comply with the new rules.

Officials said the new rules would mean that roughly 190,000 of the 200,000 non-citizens that currently hold one of these commercial licenses should never have received one, but the rules aren’t retroactive so those drivers won’t lose their licenses. Only drivers who have either an H-2a, H-2b or E-2 visa will now be eligible to get a commercial driver’s license. Just having an employment authorization document won’t be enough.

The Florida crash drew outrage from President Donald Trump and Duffy and inspired a political fight between the governors of Florida and California. It also put Sikh truck drivers in the crossfire because the truck driver in the Florida crash is a member of that faith.

On August 12, Harjinder Singh made the illegal turn from northbound lanes of Florida’s Turnpike about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of West Palm Beach, the Florida Highway Patrol said. A minivan that was traveling behind him was unable to avoid the truck’s trailer, which blocked the northbound lanes.

Two passengers in the minivan died at the scene and the driver died at a hospital. Singh and a passenger in his truck were not injured.

Singh lived in California but he was originally issued a commercial driver’s license in Washington before California issued him a license later. The fallout from the crash fueled a verbal tussle between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Trump administration.

Singh is charged with three state counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations. The federal government has asked that he be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after his criminal case is complete.

Singh faces an arraignment hearing Monday on charges of vehicular homicide and manslaughter, according to court records in St. Lucie County, Florida.

Singh has retained a private lawyer, Natalie Knight-Tai, to represent him, records show.

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Associated Press Writer Jeff Martin contributed to this report.