OAN Staff Blake Wolf
5:26 PM – Friday, October 24, 2025
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy criticized California and specifically its Democrat governor, Gavin Newsom, for permitting the state to issue Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) to illegal aliens, following another deadly crash involving a non-citizen driver from India that claimed three lives on Tuesday.
Duffy highlighted that California disregarded a federal directive to revoke improperly issued non-domiciled CDLs, which are licenses for illegal aliens or other non-permanent residents, while imposing stricter eligibility criteria limited to specific employment-based visas.
The order, issued in September, was prompted by a series of fatal accidents involving non-domiciled drivers.
“We have a government system designed to keep families on the road safe, but that system has been compromised,” Duffy stated at the time.
“I’m talking about non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses that are issued across the country. In plain English, this is a license to operate a massive 80,000-pound truck that is being issued to foreign drivers who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. The process for issuing these licenses is absolutely 100% broken. It has become a threat to public safety, and it is a national emergency that requires action right now,” he added.
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Duffy contends that despite his order, California remained stubbornly uncompliant, leading to the fatal crash that made headlines this week on Interstate 10 in Ontario.
On Tuesday, a deadly chain-reaction crash occurred on the westbound 10 Freeway, near the interchange with the 15 Freeway. The collision involved eight vehicles, including four semi-trucks, and resulted in a massive fire. It was caused by a semi-truck driven by 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh, who was speeding, under the influence of drugs, and failed to brake before slamming into slow-moving traffic. Singh, an illegal alien from India who lives in Yuba City, was arrested at the scene on charges including three counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, DUI causing injury, and driving under the influence of drugs.
The crash killed three people and injured four others, including Singh and a mechanic who was changing a tire on the roadside. Singh pleaded not guilty in court on Friday, and he now faces federal immigration consequences.
“My prayers are with the families of the victims of this tragedy,” Duffy stated. “It would have never happened if Gavin Newsom had followed our rules. California broke the law, and now three people are dead and two are hospitalized. These people deserve justice. There will be consequences.”
Within the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Annual Program Review for 2025, it concluded that California’s non-domiciled CDL issuance system included “systematic policy, procedural, and programming errors.”
Auditors also discovered that the state was issuing non-domiciled CDLs to drivers even after their federal work authorization expired, prompting the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to issue an emergency order tightening eligibility.
“The truth is, we do set the guidelines by which licenses can be issued. We sent that guidance out, Gavin Newsom said, ‘I’m not gonna follow it, I’m gonna allow this foreigner to get an upgraded license.’ That was Gavin Newsom’s choice, the state issues commercial driver’s licenses. We give the guidance, they issue them. I gave the guidance, Gavin Newsom didn’t follow it, and three people are now dead because he refused to follow the rules that come from DOT,” Duffy stated during a recent Fox News segment.
“This is really simple stuff: keep your citizens safe, keep foreigners off the roads, especially those who aren’t trained. Stop giving licenses illegally to people who are not in the country lawfully,” he added.
California previously issued the CDL to Singh on June 27th, and despite the DOT flagging the state’s process of issuing licenses and tightening restrictions, he was somehow able to receive the upgraded driver’s license on October 15th.
The DOT has given California 30 days to revoke all non-compliant licenses and cease issuing new non-domiciled CDLs or risk federal funding penalties.
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