As the Donald Trump administration continues to clamp down on immigration in the United States, authorities have arrested an Indian truck driver residing in the country unlawfully. However, knowledge about his “illegal” status only came into focus after he was accused of causing a heart-rending crash while driving a semi-truck that left an American citizen hospitalised and in critical condition.
ICE arrests ‘illegal’ Indian truck driver
The Indian man has been identified as 25-year-old Sukhdev Singh, whose arrest was announced on March 13 (US time) by the Department of Homeland Security. The case has particularly stoked the Trump administration’s wrath, as Singh was still issued a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) by the state of New York despite being undocumented in the country.
It mirrors several other such cases involving undocumented Punjabi-origin Indian truck drivers being at the centre of fatal crashes in the US. In a similarly horrifying development last year, Harjinder Singh came under the radar of federal authorities after being accused of making an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike. The maneuver led to the deaths of three passengers of a minivan that crashed into Singh’s 18-wheeler trailer truck.
Like Sukhdev, Harjinder had also managed to acquire a CDL (but in California) despite his unlawful status in the US.
In light of the emerging pattern, DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said, “It is common sense: illegal aliens should not be operating 18-wheelers on American highways. We are praying this individual makes a full recovery. It is incredibly dangerous for illegal aliens, who often don’t know our traffic laws or even English, to be operating 18-wheelers on America’s roads. Sanctuary governors like Kathy Hochul must stop giving illegal aliens driver’s licenses before even more Americans get injured or killed.”
The DHS has since revealed that the state of New York issued Sukhdev a non-domiciled CDL on January 2, 2025. Federal officials have also released a photo of the license. The DHS has yet to disclose when Singh illegally entered the US.
Indian truck driver behind US crash? Here’s what we know
According to the Homeland Security’s news release published this week, semi-truck driver Sukhdev Singh hit a pedestrian at E Raymond Street and I-65 in Indianapolis, Indiana, on March 6, 2026. In the aftermath, the Indiana State Police arrived at the scene and arrested the 25-year-old accused. Local authorities later also contacted US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in connection with the accident.
Although the news of Singh’s arrest was only released this week, ICE originally nabbed him that evening itself. As per the DHS’s latest update, the victim was taken to a local hospital, where he remains in critical condition as of now.
California and New York under Trump admin’s radar over CDLs
While Gavin Newsom’s California is already under fire for issuing CDLs to undocumented foreigners, the DHS further exposed Governor Kathy Hochul’s New York, noting that Sukhdev wasn’t the first sFuch individual to have been granted a license. In October, officials announced the arrest of a man identified as Anmol Anmol, who was issued a CDL by New York to “No Name Given Anmol.”
According to record checks conducted by ICE, Anmol was found to be an illegal migrant from India who came to the US in 2023. He was ultimately taken into custody and placed under removal proceedings.
Back in September, the Department of Transportation (DOT) heavily cracked down on non-domiciled CDLs, announcing that a federal audit had found “catastrophic patterns” of American states unlawfully issuing licenses to foreign truck drivers. According to a DOT investigation released in December 2025, over 50% of New York’s non-domiciled licenses were issued illegally.
During his recent State of the Union address in February 2026, President Trump declared that he aimed to pass the ‘Dalilah Law.’
The bill was named after Dalilah Coleman, a girl who was only five years old in June 2024 when an eighteen-wheeler tractor-trailer plowed into her stopped car at sixty miles an hour or more,” the POTUS said. “The driver was an illegal alien let in by Joe Biden and given a commercial driver’s license by open borders politicians in California.”