Gavin Newsom thought he could ignore federal safety rules without consequences.
He was dead wrong.
And Sean Duffy exposed Gavin Newsom with one report that could cost California hundreds of millions.
California’s deadly gamble with truck driver licenses
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy dropped a bombshell report showing exactly how Gavin Newsom’s California violated federal law and got three innocent Americans killed in the process.
The damning timeline exposes a pattern of deliberate defiance that turned California highways into death traps.
Jashanpreet Singh, a 21-year-old asylum seeker who crossed the border illegally in 2022, never should have been behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound semi-truck.
But California’s Department of Motor Vehicles handed him a restricted commercial driver’s license anyway on June 27, 2025.
The license came with a "K restriction" limiting Singh to driving only within California’s borders.
Three months later, everything went wrong.
On September 26, Secretary Duffy formally notified California of "significant compliance failures" after federal audits revealed one in four non-domiciled CDLs sampled were issued improperly.¹
The audit uncovered California issuing licenses to drivers years after their legal presence expired, handing CDLs to school bus drivers without verifying immigration status, and programming errors that bypassed basic safety checks.²
Duffy gave California explicit orders: pause all non-domiciled CDL issuances, identify every noncompliant license, and revoke licenses that don’t meet federal requirements.
That same day, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued an emergency rule preventing asylum seekers from obtaining non-domiciled CDLs.³
The new rule required mandatory federal immigration status checks and employment-based visas.
California had crystal-clear instructions to prevent exactly what happened next.
The upgrade that killed three people
Singh turned 21 on October 15.
California’s DMV automatically removed his K restriction and upgraded his driving privileges without applying the stricter federal standards Duffy had mandated just weeks earlier.⁴
That upgrade was Singh’s death sentence for three innocent victims.
Six days later on October 21, Singh was operating a semi-truck under the influence of drugs on Interstate 10 in Ontario, California.
Dashcam footage captured the horrifying moment Singh’s truck, traveling at high speed, slammed into stopped traffic without ever hitting the brakes.⁵
The impact killed a 54-year-old man driving a Toyota Tacoma and two people in a Kia Sorento.
Two more victims were hospitalized with serious injuries.
The California Highway Patrol arrested Singh at the scene.
Toxicology tests confirmed he was impaired by drugs.⁶
Singh now faces three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and DUI causing injury.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office said additional charges may be filed.⁷
Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged an arrest detainer for Singh, who entered the United States illegally through the southern border in 2022 and was released by the Biden administration.⁸
Newsom faces the bill for his defiance
Duffy didn’t mince words about who was responsible.
"My prayers are with the families of the victims of this tragedy," Duffy stated. "It would have never happened if Gavin Newsom had followed our new rules."⁹
"California broke the law and now three people are dead and two are hospitalized. These people deserve justice. There will be consequences," Duffy added.
The consequences are already piling up.
Duffy had already withheld $40 million in federal funding from California in October for refusing to enforce English language proficiency requirements for truck drivers.¹⁰
Now California faces losing another $160 million in federal highway funds for failing to comply with the non-domiciled CDL restrictions.
That penalty doubles to $320 million in year two if California continues its defiance.¹¹
Duffy told Fox News host Sean Hannity he’s prepared to go even further.
"I am doing a quick review of their lack of compliance with our rules. And then I have the ability to say to California, listen, you don’t follow any of these rules that keep Americans safe, we’re going to revoke your ability to issue a commercial driver’s license," Duffy explained.¹²
Newsom’s office tried deflecting by claiming California’s CDL holders have a "fatal crash rate nearly 40% lower than the national average."¹³
But that statistic misses the point entirely.
The issue isn’t California’s overall crash rate.
The issue is California deliberately ignoring federal law and upgrading Singh’s license when Duffy had explicitly ordered them to stop.
If California had followed Duffy’s September 26 directive, Singh would have been required to return to the DMV to upgrade his license.
At that point, the emergency rule would have blocked him from keeping his CDL because of his asylum seeker status.¹⁴
Three Americans would still be alive today.
Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington also showed systemic noncompliance in their CDL issuance programs.¹⁵
Duffy made clear enforcement actions against these states are coming.
But California stands alone as the worst offender.
Federal audits found 25% of California’s non-domiciled CDLs violated federal regulations.¹⁶
The state issued 62,000 non-domiciled CDLs as of June 2025, meaning approximately 15,500 dangerous drivers got licenses they never should have received.¹⁷
Newsom has 30 days from September 26 to audit California’s CDL program and void every noncompliant license.
The clock is ticking and more federal funding hangs in the balance.
"When is California going to revolt and demand accountability from its leaders?" Duffy asked during his Fox News appearance.
The families of Singh’s three victims are already demanding it.
They deserve justice for loved ones killed because Gavin Newsom decided California’s sanctuary policies matter more than American lives.
¹ Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, "Bombshell Report: Trump’s Transportation Secretary Finds California Broke Federal Laws," U.S. Department of Transportation, October 24, 2025.
² Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, "Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses," Federal Register, September 29, 2025.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, "Bombshell Report: Trump’s Transportation Secretary Finds California Broke Federal Laws," U.S. Department of Transportation, October 24, 2025.
⁵ Alex Sundby, "Truck driver in country illegally was under influence of drugs in California crash that killed 3: Police," ABC News, October 24, 2025.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ DHS Public Affairs, "ICE Lodges Arrest Detainer for Criminal Illegal Alien Who Killed 3 in California," U.S. Department of Homeland Security, October 23, 2025.
⁹ Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, "Bombshell Report: Trump’s Transportation Secretary Finds California Broke Federal Laws," U.S. Department of Transportation, October 24, 2025.
¹⁰ Secretary Sean Duffy, "FMCSA to withhold over $40 million from California," U.S. Department of Transportation, October 15, 2025.
¹¹ Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, "Trump’s Transportation Secretary Takes Emergency Action to Protect America’s Roads," U.S. Department of Transportation, September 26, 2025.
¹² Jason Hopkins, "Sean Duffy Details How He Could Hammer California For Giving Illegal Aliens CDLs Following Fatal Wreck," The Daily Caller, October 24, 2025.
¹³ Alex Sundby, "Truck driver in country illegally was under influence of drugs in California crash that killed 3: Police," ABC News, October 24, 2025.
¹⁴ Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, "Bombshell Report: Trump’s Transportation Secretary Finds California Broke Federal Laws," U.S. Department of Transportation, October 24, 2025.
¹⁵ Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, "Trump’s Transportation Secretary Takes Emergency Action to Protect America’s Roads," U.S. Department of Transportation, September 26, 2025.
¹⁶ Ibid.
¹⁷ Eno Center for Transportation, "Administration Creates New Restrictions for Truck and Bus Driver Licensing," September 26, 2025.
