By now you likely heard of two recent incidents with illegal aliens driving commercial trunks. On August 12th, an 18-wheeler truck, driven by an illegal alien named Harjinder Singh, was operating in Bay County FL. Mr. Singh attempted an illegal U-turn, jackknifed and collided with a minivan. The crash killed all three people on board. Besides Singh, another illegal alien with a commercial driver’s license (CDL), issued by New Jersey, was taken into custody for an ICE hold. Singh was licensed by both Washington state and California.
On October 22nd, an illegal alien named Jashanpreet Singh, operating an 18-wheeler outside of Los Angeles plowed into seven vehicles on Interstate-10. This crash killed three and injured four others. What do these three men have in common? One, they are all illegal aliens. Two, their English comprehension was, to put it nicely, limited. Three, they were issued license to drive commercial vehicles in the US by three liberal states.
The canard liberals push constantly is illegal aliens are only here to do “the jobs Americans won’t do anymore.” I find that factitious at best. At 18 you can get an initial CDL for instate transport in less than two months and under $4,000. If you have a job already with a company, they often times will pay for your training. Additional endorsements (e.g., hazardous materials) will take additional training and experience. Also, for intrastate commerce the federal government requires the driver be at least 21.
The average CDL driver starts at well over $50,000 and it climbs with experience, a safe driving record, and endorsements. I have a high school friend who went the vo-tech route and got his CDL at 19. Now he manages a trucking company in Houston and makes a very good income with great benefits. The endorsements on his license are half the alphabet, you name it, he can haul it. He can command a high five or low six figure income. Not bad for someone who’s only experience with college is delivering things there.
One day I asked him how much had been put into his training over the years. He had to think for a minute and answered, “Mike at least a quarter million dollars.” I asked how much of that he paid for himself? “Nothing.” So he started off in his late teens making good money without having to take out a mortgage for tuition. Sounds like a great career field for someone who’s not college oriented.
More to the point, we need to remember driving any vehicle is someone perilous. Driving a rig is orders of magnitude worse. Two tons verses eighty. There are reason commercial drivers are limited to eleven hours of driving, followed by mandatory ten hours of down time.
As a rookie officer I saw what happens when rigs are driven poorly. A drunk driver was driving an unsecured load in his rig and took a curve too fast. He flipped and crushed an SUV, killing most of the occupants. I believe he is still in prison for intoxication manslaughter, but he should have never been allowed on the road. Same with these three drivers.
Liberals want illegal aliens to cast the votes Americans won’t cast anymore (the dead have their limits). If it means we import gang members that rape and kill your family, tough. But that’s not the only threat. I’ve found too many illegal aliens driving who are not concerned they are a hazard on the road (e.g., speeding, stopping in the middle of the highway for no reason, no insurance, impaired driving). Now we have greater threats on the highway with illegals driving rigs that weigh over 100,000 pounds.
First, we need to continue our efforts to secure the border and deport the illegals already here. Cut it off before it starts.
Second, we need to start holding companies and their staff criminally liable for hiring illegal aliens. If they knew or should have known, the federal government should be prosecuting these people and putting them into jail. And families should be getting multi-million-dollar civil judgements. Hit them where it hurts the most, the wallet.
Next we need to ensure states are not issuing licenses to illegal aliens (as opposed to immigrants). If you issue a CDL to an illegal alien who kills someone, hold the licensing bureau staff legally liable. If it was I my power, the bureaucrats who issued those CDLs would be looking at charges of criminal negligent homicide. Back to my friend with the CDL, it infuriates him that by law you must be fluent in English to possess a CDL. But (in Texas) you can take the written exam in Spanish. What’s wrong with this picture?
Finally, we need to start making it painful for liberal states to continue doing this. Start cutting off all federal transportation funding to states that issue any driver’s license to an illegal alien (commercial or not). You want your Democratic voter endangering your citizens, fine, you do with without the tax dollars of the rest of the states. You’re not only endangering your citizens, but you’re also endangering the lives of others. And that cannot be tolerated.
