If the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrant truckers had a face, it would be Harjinder Singh. The Indian-born Singh was driving an 18-wheeler in Fort Pierce, Fla., in August when he allegedly made an illegal U‑turn that led to a crash that killed three people. The Department of Homeland Security says Singh was in the U.S. illegally; California Gov. Gavin Newsom contends he had a valid work permit when he applied for a commercial driver’s license. Singh has pleaded not guilty to three counts of vehicular homicide.
Singh’s case became a major story on conservative TV and prompted a swift response from the administration. Within weeks, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced emergency regulations that would make it much harder for immigrants — including some who are legally in the U.S. — to get commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). Duffy called the CDL-issuing process “absolutely 100% broken,” a threat to public safety and a national emergency that required immediate action, saying there are too many foreign-born drivers who don’t know the rules or speak English proficiently.
The Department of Transportation said tougher regulations were urgently needed after a series of deadly crashes involving foreign-born truckers. But critics say the evidence doesn’t back that conclusion. They argue the rule is effectively an immigration crackdown by another name and point out that DOT’s own audit found no link between a trucker’s country of origin and their driving record.
Pawan Singh, who runs a trucking company in Northern Virginia (and is not related to Harjinder Singh), says some problems the DOT identified are real: unqualified drivers and schools that push people through CDL programs without adequate training. “An untrained driver is dangerous whether they were born here or overseas,” he said. Still, he worries the administration is focusing more on targeting foreign-born drivers — and on visible minority groups such as Sikhs, who are common in the industry and easy to spot because of turbans and beards. When minorities make mistakes, Singh says, those incidents can become stereotypes.
Immigration policy analysts also say the rule would sharply limit which non‑permanent immigrants are eligible for CDLs, potentially pushing as many as 200,000 immigrant truckers out of the industry. The administration is also urging states to revoke CDLs it says were issued illegally — licenses that extend beyond the expiration of an applicant’s federal work authorization. California has said it will revoke about 17,000 noncompliant CDLs; the DOT has threatened to withhold $75 million in federal funds from Pennsylvania unless it revokes CDLs the federal government deems improperly issued.
Cassandra Zimmer‑Wong, an immigration policy analyst at the Niskanen Center, says the rule “just feels like this is an immigration raid by another name,” arguing the intention appears to be to remove immigrant drivers from work rather than to improve safety. A panel of judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the emergency rule while weighing a legal challenge, but the administration is pushing to make the restrictions permanent.
The dispute highlights tensions between safety concerns raised after a handful of high-profile crashes and broader questions about whether sweeping restrictions on immigrant truckers will actually make roads safer or instead disrupt an industry that relies heavily on foreign-born labor.