Getting some truckers out from behind the wheel

You may not recognize Karan Singh’s name, but you’ve likely heard of the problem his case exemplifies: workers who entered the US illegally and began driving massive trucks, even if they were clearly unqualified — creating hazardous conditions for everyone on the road.

Singh, an Indian national, entered the US illegally during the Biden administration, was released, and then claimed asylum. This, in and of itself, is ridiculous. India is a developing country, with plenty of corruption and other problems. But if our law was properly applied, no one from India (where I worked for two years as a diplomat) would qualify for asylum under US law.

That doesn’t stop them from trying, and it doesn’t stop ill-informed or soft-touch judges from granting asylum in some cases. But those decisions take years, and in the meantime the claimants can work — which is why they came illegally to begin with. Heads they work, tails they work. And workers in India make a fraction of the wage they do here.

Singh was stopped for inspection at a weigh station while hauling a load of frozen chicken along Interstate 80. He failed a test of basic English and lost his ability to drive the truck (although he later passed the test and resumed). According to the Wall Street Journal, 10,700 drivers like him have lost their licenses due to failing English tests, compared to “just a handful each year between 2021 and 2024.”

Yet they never should have had licenses to begin with. According to the Department of Transportation, 194,000 people who are neither American citizens nor legal permanent residents hold a “non-domiciled” commercial driver’s license (CDL). That’s 8% of the total CDL holders out there.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced last September that six states, including California and Texas, were issuing CDLs to non-domiciled workers. This includes some of the millions of inadmissible migrants released at the border under Biden, like Karan Singh. And Harjinder Singh, a trucker who killed three people in Florida last August while making an illegal U-turn. And Jashan Preet Singh, a trucker who killed three people in California last October while reportedly on his phone.

And Bekzhan Beishekeev, who entered the US using a Biden administration unauthorised mass parole program and later killed four people with his truck in Indiana. Duffy noted that California and other lax states were letting “non-domiciled” workers here illegally renew their licenses — even if their immigration status had changed to illegal. Duffy’s agency proposed new rules, to take effect this month, under which people like Singh won’t be able to get CDLs, even if they are allowed to work while their asylum claims are pending.

Even California decided to rescind and stop issuing CDLs to those whose immigration status is doubtful. But naturally, a California judge just ruled that not allowing those here illegally to drive big trucks is discrimination. Let’s hope that decision is roundly reversed at a higher level. I’ve driven cars in India, Kenya, Togo and plenty of other places with very different rules of the road from our own. In the Himalayas 35 years ago, a cab driver took me down a mountain road at night with his lights off, because he mistakenly thought they cost him more gas.

I could write a book on the accidents I’ve seen, and the routine lack of signage, dangerous roads, clapped-out vehicles with bald tires and brakes, and total disregard of road rules. You can’t take someone used to driving in a third-world country and expect him to quickly adjust to American ways. You certainly wouldn’t want him navigating a big truck weighing several tons down the road — especially if he didn’t speak English, couldn’t read road signs, and couldn’t communicate with other drivers or the police. Yet that’s exactly what happens in America today.

In Missouri recently, a truck driver described as a Somali national was caught going the wrong way down a highway. Police tested him and found he was unable to speak basic English or interpret road signs — something most American 16-year-olds must master to get a license. Americans have to pass skills tests to drive trucks or do many jobs with a high risk to public safety. Surely no one should be allowed to drive heavy machinery unless that person is a citizen or permanent resident who can read and speak English and knows the rules of the road. That hardly seems radical. In fact, it seems like a way to save lives.