Governor Ron DeSantis is calling on Congress to act after an undocumented truck driver was involved in a deadly crash on the Florida Turnpike.
The fatal crash occurred on Aug. 12 at 2:57 p.m. near Mile Marker 171 on the northbound lanes of Florida’s Turnpike in Fort Pierce, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV).
Cause of the crash caught on camera
Dashcam video captured the moment the driver of the truck, 28-year old Harjinder Singh, attempted an illegal U-turn in an area marked for “official use only,” crossing multiple lanes into the path of a northbound Chrysler Town & Country minivan. The minivan struck the truck’s trailer and became wedged underneath.
A 30-year-old man from Florida City and his two passengers, a 37-year-old woman from Pompano Beach and a 54-year-old man from Miami, died as a result of the crash.
Singh of Stockton, California, and his 25-year-old passenger from Yuba City, California, were not injured, FLHSMV said.
During a news conference in St. Cloud on Tuesday, DeSantis called Singh’s demeanor at the time of the crash disturbing.
“Because if you look, we have video of this, we have photos of this, and he seemed to not like, I mean, it was almost like, you know, he’s walking down the sidewalk, maybe stubbed his toe, just kind of like it was, it didn’t register to him and I’m like that is really cold,” he said.
DeSantis critical of California’s licensing practice
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Monday that Singh entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2018 and later obtained a commercial driver’s license in California, one of 19 states plus the District of Columbia that issue licenses regardless of immigration status, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
“In Florida, what we’ve said is we’re not giving licenses if you’re here illegally, we’re not giving ID cards. In fact, you can’t even do like these NGOs want to issue, we don’t allow that. We don’t recognize California driver’s licenses. So we’re creating a situation where following the laws (are) the right thing to do and violating the laws (are) the wrong thing to do. Now, California, they do it differently. They invite people to come illegally, they provide benefits.”
DeSantis calls out Congress
The governor said Congress needs to act.
“It can’t just be like we do things right in Florida and somehow that’s going to cure what’s happening on the Left Coast and some of these other places. Ultimately, Congress has the power of the purse, they do not need to fund you. If you’re a sanctuary state, they can remove funding from sanctuary cities. So stop subsidizing this. You have people that are in Congress that are complaining about what happened. While I appreciate the sympathy, it’s like you guys have the power of the purse,” DeSantis said.
Singh faces three counts of vehicular homicide in addition to immigration violations. He is currently being held in a California jail and an ICE detainer has been issued.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said they are not just going to deport Singh. They are going to convict him and have him serve time “behind bars for as long as possible.” Only then, he said, will Singh be handed over for deportation.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
