‘Slap on the wrist’: Illegal immigrant trucker’s sentence ignites outrage after crash killed 3

Trump administration officials and conservatives torched a California judge’s sentence for an illegal immigrant trucker who killed three people in a fiery California semi-truck collision, after he was given less than five years behind bars.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who called the sentencing a “slap on the wrist,” said his agency will not stop “until ALL illegal alien truckers are put out of business and held accountable,” while the Department of Homeland Security said immigration officials were standing by to arrest the trucker “upon his release, so he is never allowed back on our roads.”

Jashanpreet Singh, a 21-year-old Indian national who federal authorities said was in the United States illegally, was sentenced Tuesday to four years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to three felony counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence stemming from an October 2025 crash on Interstate 10 in San Bernardino County, California. Singh’s semitruck plowed into slow-moving traffic, killing three people and injuring several others, while dashcam video showed him never applying the brakes before impact.

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“This is a wildly insufficient punishment for a foreign national, in our country illegally, who killed 3 people with a truck,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said.

“Despite taking the lives of 3 people in a horrific eight-vehicle crash, criminal illegal alien Jashanpreet Singh was given a SLAP ON THE WRIST prison sentence of less than 5 years in sanctuary California,” DHS said following news of Singh’s sentencing. “Illegal aliens like this killer should NEVER be allowed behind the wheel or on our nation’s roads. ICE stands ready to arrest Singh upon his release so he is never allowed back on our roads to take another innocent life.”

“5 years is a slap on the wrist for KILLING 3 AMERICANS,” the Transportation Secretary added. “If California followed the rules, illegal aliens like Jashanpreet Singh wouldn’t be driving 80,000 pound missiles down our roads We won’t stop until ALL illegal truckers are put out of business and held accountable.”

Singh crossed the southern border in California’s El Centro Sector in March 2022 and was released into the U.S. under the Biden administration pending an immigration hearing, according to federal sources. He later obtained a California commercial driver’s license in June 2025, according to the Department of Transportation.

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Federal officials had previously warned California about compliance issues involving commercial driver’s licenses and directed the state to pause new licenses to non-citizens and review existing licenses to make sure they complied with federal requirements. Fox News Digital previously reported that Singh should have been disqualified under an emergency DOT policy, while California officials said his eligibility was based on federally approved employment authorization documents.

Meanwhile, during an April debate among candidates for California governor, several running as Democrats said they would fight the Trump administration’s push to get California police officers to begin issuing English proficiency tests for big rig drivers in the state because it’s racist. 

“Racial profiling is illegal. And, in fact, picking on people based on the color of their skin in the state of California, is illegal,” Democrat megadonor and billionaire businessman Tom Steyer said when asked if he would support a policy enforcing police to issue road-side language proficiency tests to truck drivers.

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“Is that officer asking everyone he pulls over to explain those road signs? Or, is he asking only people who look like me? If he’s doing that, then he’s violating the law,” former Biden administration Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Beccera said, slamming a police officer in a short local news clip that was played by debate moderators showing an officer issuing a field test to determine if a commercial driver who spoke Spanish could understand road signs.

But then-Republican California gubernatorial hopeful Sheriff Chad Bianco, who was forced to bow out after not qualifying for the general election in the state’s nonpartisan June primary, slammed his Democratic opponents for pulling the race card. 

“Let’s stop with this whole racism thing, and racial profiling and all of this garbage. We have to get over this. You either violated the law or you didn’t. End of story,” Bianco said. “Consequences for bad behavior.”