“Three Dead Because He Refused to Listen”: Trump Administration Slams Newsom After Illegal Immigrant Trucker Crash
The footage is unbearable — a red semi-truck barreling down a California freeway, a moment of hesitation, and then impact. In seconds, an ordinary commute turned into an inferno. Three lives were gone. Four others were left injured. And in the wreckage, a national debate reignited.
This week, the Trump administration turned its focus on California once again — not over homelessness, not over crime, but over something even more elemental: the right to be safe on the road.
The crash, which occurred on a stretch of the I-5 near Stockton, might have been written off as another tragic accident. But the driver, 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh, should never have been driving a truck at all. Singh, an illegal immigrant from India who entered the United States through the southern border in 2022, somehow obtained a commercial driver’s license (CDL) despite new federal restrictions designed to prevent that very thing.
Now, three people are dead — and the blame game has reached the highest levels of government.
The Rule That Could Have Saved Lives
Appearing on America Reports with Fox News host John Roberts, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy didn’t mince words. His message was aimed squarely at California Governor Gavin Newsom, who, he said, ignored federal safety directives that could have kept Singh off the highway.
“Had Gavin followed our rules per DOT, this guy would have never been on the road,” Duffy told Roberts. “Three more people would be alive.”
The new Department of Transportation emergency rule, enacted on September 26, required all states to verify the legal immigration status of applicants before granting or upgrading commercial licenses. The rule was simple — and urgent: no verification, no license.
But according to a DOT report released Friday, California refused to comply. Instead, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles went on issuing CDLs to applicants without confirming their lawful presence, citing state-level sanctuary policies.
The consequences, Duffy said, were both predictable and devastating.
“We gave the guidance,” he continued. “Gavin Newsom said, ‘I’m not going to follow it. I’m going to allow this foreigner to get an upgraded license.’ That was Gavin Newsom’s choice. The states issue the licenses, we set the rules. He broke them — and three people are now dead because of it.”
The Fatal Timeline
The tragedy unfolded with chilling precision.
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June 27, 2024 — Singh was granted a restricted CDL by California’s DMV, allowing him to operate commercial vehicles for intrastate travel only.
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September 26, 2025 — DOT’s emergency rule went into effect, requiring states to verify immigration status for all CDL applicants.
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September 28, 2025 — Federal officials notified California of “significant compliance failures” and gave the state 30 days to audit its licensing program.
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October 15, 2025 — Singh’s birthday. Instead of revoking his restricted license, California upgraded it to full interstate status — the exact opposite of what the federal rule demanded.
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October 21, 2025 — Singh’s truck, allegedly under the influence, slammed into a family SUV at high speed, killing three people and injuring four others.
In less than a month, a bureaucratic decision became a bloodstain on California asphalt.
The Federal Report
The Department of Transportation’s internal review, released just hours after Duffy’s interview, is scathing.
“Gavin Newsom was explicitly warned California’s CDL program was dangerously broken,” it states.
“The USDOT’s emergency rule was issued to explicitly prevent drivers like Singh from getting behind the wheel of commercial motor vehicles.”
According to the report, California officials not only ignored repeated warnings from Washington but actively lifted restrictions on known non-citizen applicants without completing legal verification.
Federal investigators believe Singh’s file was marked for review after the rule change — yet someone in the California DMV system overrode the flag. The state has not explained who authorized the override or why.
The Crash That Broke the Story
Dashcam footage from another vehicle shows Singh’s red semi speeding in the far right lane. Traffic slows ahead. He doesn’t. The truck slams into an SUV carrying a family of four, igniting a chain reaction that sent fire and debris across four lanes of traffic.
By the time emergency crews arrived, the SUV was a burned shell. Three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene. Singh was arrested moments later, intoxicated and incoherent.
He now faces three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and driving under the influence. ICE officials confirmed a detainer request has been filed to take custody of Singh after local proceedings conclude.
To the families of the victims, none of it matters. What matters is that this man should have never been on the road — and everyone in government knew it.
Newsom’s Defiance
Governor Newsom’s office issued a brief, defensive statement late Friday night, calling Duffy’s accusations “politically motivated” and accusing the Trump administration of “weaponizing tragedy.”
But the timeline tells a different story.
The Department of Transportation issued multiple compliance warnings to California throughout early October, even threatening to revoke the state’s authority to issue federal CDLs if corrections weren’t made. Instead, the DMV doubled down — quietly processing license upgrades for hundreds of applicants flagged under the new rule.
It’s not the first time California has clashed with Washington over driver’s license policy. Since 2013, the state has issued over 1.2 million licenses to undocumented immigrants under its AB 60 law, which allows illegal residents to drive legally within the state.
But those licenses were never meant for interstate trucking — and certainly not after a federal emergency rule forbade it.
For Newsom, ideology appears to have triumphed over safety.
A Preventable Tragedy
In his Fox interview, Secretary Duffy’s tone turned somber as he described the human toll.
“This isn’t about politics,” he said. “It’s about three people who didn’t make it home because a governor refused to enforce basic safety standards. We’re talking about an untrained driver, in a vehicle weighing 80,000 pounds, under the influence — and a federal warning that was ignored.”
He added that the Department of Transportation will now audit California’s CDL program and potentially refer state officials for criminal negligence if the evidence warrants.
The administration, he said, “will not let this slide.”
The Families’ Anguish
By Saturday morning, the victims’ names had been released.
Two adults and a teenage daughter — their car reduced to blackened metal on the freeway shoulder.
At a roadside memorial, relatives wept beside photos taped to the guardrail. One woman, her voice cracking, told reporters:
“I don’t care what party you’re in. I just want to know why he was allowed to drive that truck.”
That question now echoes from California to Washington — and it’s one the Newsom administration may struggle to answer.
The Immigration Factor
The story doesn’t end with the license.
According to ICE officials, Singh crossed into the United States near Eagle Pass, Texas, in late 2022. He was released under “parole pending asylum claim” — a process that has drawn fierce criticism from Trump administration officials for allowing migrants to remain in the country for years without resolution.
By 2024, Singh had relocated to California, where he applied for a commercial driving license — a process that, under the Trump administration’s reinstated immigration verification rule, should have been blocked automatically.
Instead, California’s DMV processed his request without question.
For the Trump administration, it’s a perfect — if horrifying — illustration of what they call the “chain of negligence” linking Biden’s border policies to state-level sanctuary enforcement.
“From the border to the DMV to the crash scene,” one federal official said, “this is what noncompliance looks like.”
A Collision of Policies
The case exposes a deeper philosophical divide between Washington and Sacramento:
federal sovereignty versus state sanctuary.
The Trump administration insists that immigration and transportation safety are federal domains, non-negotiable when it comes to public protection.
California, by contrast, treats immigration status as a moral and political issue — one that should not, in their view, limit access to jobs or mobility.
But when ideology meets infrastructure, the results can be fatal.
And in this case, they were.
The Political Fallout
Even among Democrats, the fallout has been brutal.
Several moderate California lawmakers have privately urged Newsom to suspend the state’s sanctuary license policy until the investigation concludes.
Meanwhile, conservative media has seized on the tragedy as the latest example of “sanctuary-state insanity.”
Fox News, Newsmax, and local affiliates replayed Duffy’s interview in rotation, juxtaposing his words with footage of the burning freeway.
In just 24 hours, the segment became the most-viewed political clip on X.
The headline that captured the nation’s mood was blunt:
“Three Dead Because He Refused to Follow the Rules.”
A Governor Under Siege
For Gavin Newsom, this is not just a political headache — it’s a crisis of credibility.
His administration has already faced federal rebukes over homelessness data, public-safety failures, and noncompliance with immigration detainer laws. Now, he stands accused of directly enabling a deadly crime by disregarding federal transportation standards.
As the DOT prepares to release additional evidence from its audit, pressure is mounting for Newsom to explain why his DMV upgraded Singh’s license against explicit warnings.
Because in the end, the argument isn’t abstract — it’s burned into California pavement.
“Keep your citizens safe,” Duffy said simply. “Keep foreigners off the roads, especially those who aren’t trained. Stop giving licenses illegally to people who are not in the country lawfully. Very simple stuff.”
Simple words. Impossible to ignore.
Fallout, Federal Heat, and a Governor on the Defensive
By Monday morning, California woke to the sound of sirens and political fury.
What began as a highway tragedy had erupted into a full-blown federal scandal — and Governor Gavin Newsom found himself squarely in the crosshairs.
The Trump administration wasn’t just condemning California’s handling of the crash; it was opening an investigation into whether the state’s defiance of federal law directly caused the deaths of three innocent people.
The narrative was brutal, direct, and impossible to dismiss: a reckless state, a preventable tragedy, and a governor who thought he knew better than Washington.
The Federal Response
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ordered a federal audit of California’s entire commercial licensing system — the first of its kind in over a decade.
The Department of Transportation’s Inspector General, alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), would jointly review every CDL issued since the emergency rule took effect in September.
In a late-night memo obtained by Fox News Digital, Duffy made his position clear:
“California’s pattern of noncompliance has placed American lives at risk.
We will examine whether officials knowingly violated the new rule.
If so, they will be referred for prosecution.”
The White House backed him completely.
Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters,
“This tragedy didn’t have to happen. The federal government created a rule to prevent exactly this scenario. Governor Newsom ignored it — and three Americans paid the price.”
Newsom’s Counterattack
Governor Newsom fired back with characteristic bravado.
At a press conference in Sacramento, flanked by state transportation officials, he dismissed Duffy’s accusations as “political theater” and accused the Trump administration of exploiting grief for “right-wing headlines.”
“California complies with every federal safety standard that’s constitutional,” Newsom said.
“What we won’t do is turn our DMV into an arm of ICE. We’re not going to discriminate based on immigration status. This tragedy is heartbreaking — but it’s not a political football.”
It was a line aimed at rallying his base.
But even among Democrats, the words landed flat.
A growing chorus of critics — including moderates in the state legislature — argued that defiance had gone too far.
When ideology blinds governance, they warned, innocent people pay the price.
The Audit Findings
Within days, the early findings of the federal audit leaked to the press.
The revelations were damning.
Out of 22,000 commercial license upgrades processed in California since September, more than 2,400 applicants lacked verifiable proof of lawful presence in the United States.
In some cases, DMV staff reportedly overrode automatic verification alerts in the system.
Internal emails reviewed by investigators showed mid-level managers warning that the new federal rule was being “ignored as a matter of policy.”
One supervisor even wrote:
“We’ve been told not to delay upgrades — even for flagged applicants — to avoid discrimination claims.”
That sentence, investigators noted, could prove catastrophic for Newsom’s legal defense.
The Trucker’s Story
Meanwhile, details of Jashanpreet Singh’s background emerged.
He’d entered the U.S. illegally through Eagle Pass, Texas, in 2022 — part of a record wave of border crossings that year.
Under the Biden-era parole system, Singh was released pending an asylum hearing that never took place.
By early 2024, he was living in Stockton, California, working odd jobs and attending truck school.
His restricted CDL was issued in June.
By October, the DMV lifted his restriction despite the federal warning.
Neighbors described him as “quiet” but often seen at bars on weekends.
Toxicology reports confirmed what everyone feared: Singh’s blood alcohol content was twice the legal limit at the time of the crash.
ICE confirmed that Singh was under active deportation proceedings when the crash occurred — yet California authorities never notified the agency that he had obtained a CDL.
A Crisis of Governance
The tragedy exposed what Trump officials called the “fatal intersection” of Biden’s border policies and California’s sanctuary governance.
“You have a broken federal border system,” one DHS analyst told The Washington Examiner.
“Then you have a state that refuses to enforce the little safeguards left. Combine those two, and you get people dying on highways.”
The administration’s message was clear: California’s ideology had become a safety hazard.
Duffy announced that any state failing to comply with the new verification rule would risk losing federal transportation funding — a move that could cost California billions.
“If you don’t want to follow the rules,” Duffy said, “then you don’t get the money. It’s that simple.”
Public Outrage
The public reaction was immediate — and raw.
Social media filled with tributes for the victims and fury at the government.
A hashtag began trending within hours: #ThreeLivesLost.
In Stockton, a candlelight vigil drew hundreds.
One local resident shouted through tears:
“We pay taxes. We follow the laws. And they let an illegal drive a truck into our families. Why?!”
California Highway Patrol officers stood silently as the crowd chanted the victims’ names.
Even some immigrant-rights advocates found themselves uneasy.
One organizer, speaking anonymously, admitted:
“There’s compassion — and then there’s carelessness. The system failed here.”
Legal and Political Fallout
The legal stakes for Newsom’s administration are enormous.
If investigators prove that DMV officials knowingly disregarded federal directives, they could face charges of criminal negligence or obstruction of federal law.
Republican lawmakers in Sacramento have already drafted a resolution calling for Newsom’s resignation.
Though unlikely to succeed, it’s a symbolic earthquake in a state that once considered him untouchable.
Nationally, the crash has given Trump’s team new ammunition for their 2026 midterm messaging:
“Secure borders save lives.”
“Sanctuary kills.”
Campaign strategists are already framing the incident as the definitive example of Democratic “lawlessness.”
Newsom’s Isolation
Behind closed doors, sources say Newsom’s staff is divided.
Some urge full cooperation with the federal audit to mitigate damage.
Others insist that admitting fault would betray California’s identity as a “sanctuary state.”
But public pressure is mounting.
Editorial boards that once praised Newsom’s defiance now question his judgment.
The San Francisco Chronicle editorial headline was stark:
“When Defiance Becomes Negligence.”
The Los Angeles Times wrote,
“No principle, however noble, excuses ignoring safety laws that protect human life.”
Within 72 hours, Newsom’s approval rating in a SurveyUSA flash poll dropped nine points — his steepest single-week decline since taking office.
The Broader Picture
For the Trump administration, the crash has become a rallying point in a larger fight to reassert federal supremacy over states that defy national immigration and safety policies.
In a press conference flanked by Homeland Security officials, President Trump addressed the tragedy directly:
“This is what happens when radical politicians put ideology over safety.
The victims didn’t die because of a truck — they died because California broke the law.
We’re fixing it, and we’re not asking permission.”
The statement drew cheers from law enforcement unions and victims’ advocacy groups across the country.
Even some moderate Democrats privately admitted that Trump’s framing — brutal though it was — resonated with frustrated voters.
California’s Moral Reckoning
Inside California, the tragedy has forced a moral reckoning long overdue.
For years, the state’s leaders argued that compassion justified leniency, that every undocumented worker deserved opportunity.
But now, compassion has collided with consequences — and the results are in ashes on the interstate.
Faith leaders have begun holding interdenominational services calling for “truth and accountability.”
One pastor in Fresno said,
“Forgiveness begins with honesty. California needs to admit that mercy without responsibility is not mercy at all.”
It was a subtle rebuke — but a devastating one.
The Human Cost
While politicians trade accusations, the victims’ families are left to pick up what remains.
The mother of one of the victims, a 17-year-old honor student, told local news:
“My daughter had her whole life ahead of her.
I don’t care about immigration.
I care about the fact that she’s gone because someone in power didn’t care enough to do their job.”
Her words captured what no press release could.
The argument isn’t about red or blue.
It’s about life and death — and the laws meant to protect both.
The Endgame
By late October, the federal audit’s preliminary report was complete.
It confirmed what many feared:
California’s DMV had violated federal rules knowingly and systematically.
Duffy’s closing statement was brief and damning:
“This wasn’t a paperwork error.
It was a policy failure — a deliberate one.
We will hold every official accountable.”
The Trump administration referred the case to the Department of Justice for review, signaling potential criminal charges against state officials who approved illegal license upgrades.
A Lesson Written in Tragedy
In the end, three funerals will do what years of press conferences and political speeches could not: force the nation to confront the cost of defiance.
For California, the wreckage is more than physical. It’s moral.
For Washington, it’s a rallying cry.
And for the families left behind, it’s a wound that will never heal.
The crash on the I-5 is no longer just a story of one driver.
It’s a warning — about borders ignored, rules rewritten, and lives lost in the gap between politics and responsibility.
As Secretary Duffy said quietly in his final interview on the matter:
“This wasn’t an accident.
It was a choice.”
And that choice, now, belongs to California.
Adrian Hawthorne is a celebrated author and dedicated archivist who finds inspiration in the hidden stories of the past. Educated at Oxford, he now works at the National Archives, where preserving history fuels his evocative writing. Balancing archival precision with creative storytelling, Adrian founded the Hawthorne Institute of Literary Arts to mentor emerging writers and honor the timeless art of narrative.