Two Truck Crashes, Two Immigrant Drivers, Two Systems That Let Them Behind the Wheel

Two Truck Crashes, Two Immigrant Drivers, Two Systems That Let Them Behind the Wheel

Two fatal truck crashes, two immigrant drivers, two separate legal systems working through the aftermath. Both cases now sit at the center of a fight over who gets a commercial driver's license in America and how they got one.

Jashanpreet Singh, a 21-year-old Indian national, was sentenced Tuesday, July 14, 2026, to four years and eight months in prison for killing three people in an October 2025 crash on Interstate 10 in Ontario, California, according to The Daily Wire. He pleaded guilty to three felony counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. He faced up to 10 years. He got less than half that.

Singh crossed the border illegally in March 2022 and was released into the country by the Biden administration after Border Patrol apprehended him, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Dashcam footage showed his semi-truck plowing into stopped traffic with no braking or swerving, triggering an eight-vehicle pileup that killed three and injured four, according to The Daily Wire.

Singh was initially arrested on suspicion of DUI, but toxicology results came back negative for both drugs and alcohol, CBS News reported. The California Highway Patrol's investigation found he simply failed to stop before hitting traffic. The sentencing judge cited Singh's age and the lack of evidence he was using a cellphone at the time as reasons for the lighter sentence, according to NBC4.

San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson didn't mince words. "Had the rule of law been followed by State and Federal officials, the defendant should have never been in California at all," he said. Former DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called it part of "a disturbing trend of illegal aliens driving 18-wheelers and semi-trucks on America's roads."

The second case is still unfolding. Bekhzod Asrarov, a 42-year-old Uzbek immigrant who does not speak English, was released from a Madison County, Ohio jail without bond days after a July 5 crash that killed 21-year-old Tobias Forsythe, a UMass Lowell soccer goalie, according to Breitbart. Asrarov's attorneys argued he had no prior criminal record and a clean driving history.

Prosecutors allege Asrarov rear-ended Forsythe's 2025 Honda Accord with his semi-truck, sending Forsythe into a median barrier. First responders pronounced Forsythe dead at the scene. Prosecutors also allege Asrarov removed his truck's dash camera and hid it in his pocket before police arrived, and that officers had to communicate with him through Google Translate because he does not speak English. Additional charges may be coming, according to Breitbart.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy weighed in directly, posting on X that the case shows why the federal government is cracking down on commercial licenses issued to foreign nationals who can't speak English. "We cannot let truckers like Asrarov, who can't read our road signs or speak to law enforcement, drive 80,000-pound rigs on America's highways," Duffy wrote.

These two cases are legally distinct. Singh has been convicted and sentenced. Asrarov has only been charged, and the facts against him, including the dash-cam allegation, are prosecutors' claims that haven't been tested at trial. He is presumed innocent unless and until a jury or plea says otherwise.

There's also a fair distinction worth making on the sentencing question. A four-year-and-eight-month sentence for vehicular manslaughter, absent evidence of intoxication or intentional recklessness, is not wildly out of line with sentencing ranges other American drivers have received for similar non-DUI fatal crashes. Judges routinely weigh age, criminal history, and absence of aggravating factors like phone use. That's not a special break reserved for immigrants. It's how the system works for everyone charged with the same offense, and reasonable people can look at the same facts and disagree about whether it's the right result.

What both cases share is a policy failure that's harder to dismiss. Singh was released into the country in 2022 after an illegal border crossing, then somehow ended up qualified to drive a semi-truck. Asrarov secured a CDL despite not speaking English, a language requirement that has technically existed under federal law for decades but has been inconsistently enforced by states issuing licenses.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requires commercial drivers to be able to read and speak English well enough to understand highway signs, communicate with the public, and respond to law enforcement. Enforcement of that requirement fell off for years, and the Trump administration has made cracking down on it a priority since taking office, tightening license verification and pushing states to audit non-domiciled CDL holders.

Neither of these crashes proves a broad statistical pattern. Two anecdotes aren't a dataset, and no source here provides nationwide crash data comparing foreign-national CDL holders to domestic drivers. What they do show, documented and undisputed, is that federal licensing and immigration enforcement broke down in two specific, fatal instances. Asrarov's case is still moving through Ohio's court system, and whether prosecutors can prove the dash-cam removal and other allegations will be decided at trial.