An Indian truck driver has been taken into US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, according to local US news outlets. Sukhjinder Singh’s name has previously made it to headlines in connection with a fatal accident around Cheat Lake on January 19, 2025. However, it remains unclear why was arrested by the immigration authorities earlier this week.

Little information is available about his immigration status. Local news outlet West Virginia-based WBOY TV barely disclosed that he was being held without bail.

Indian truck driver in ICE custody

37-year-old Sukhjinder Singh was booked into the South Central Region Jail by ICE on November 24 at 1:30 pm (local time), according to the WBOY, CNBC’s local news affiliate in the US, which cited the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation website’s data.

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This comes a month after the Indian truck driver was sentenced to a year-long prison sentence and order to pay a $1,000 fine in connection with the fatal accident on the Interstate 68 Cheat Lake Bridge in January.

Sukhjinder Singh was arrested earlier this year

As part of probe linked to the case, Singh was arrested in March only after investigators identified him as a suspect and charged following a weeks-long investigation. Local news outlets cited investigators, revealing that the Indian national driving a semi trailer was driving at an unsafe pace when he struck the vehicle of a man named Kevin Lataille during a snowstorm.

The collision caused the other man and his car to drown into Cheat Lake. Prior to the said collision, Singh had hit another vehicle while he was behind the wheel, as per WBOY. After the accident on the bridge, Singh fled to California, according to Daily Caller.

A warrant was issued for his arrest for negligent homicide at the time. Then, in October, the truck driver admitted that he was the one behind the wheel, causing Pennsylvania man Kevin Lataille’s car to fall from the bridge during a snowstorm. The victim’s vehicle was eventually pulled out from under the ice in the lake on January 26, according to Daily Caller. His body was inside the car.

Singh was eventually interviewed on February 28 in the presence of a translator.

Thereafter, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanour vehicular manslaughter during a plea hearing before the Monongalia County magistrate. A sentence hearing was set for October 27.

Indian truck driver under radar in the US

Sukhjinder Singh’s case has popped back into media focus with the latest ICE development. His immigration detention comes at a time when Indian truck drivers are particularly under scrutiny in light of similar fatal accidents in America.

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The issue particularly blew out of proportion when Harjinder Singh attempted to make an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike while driving an 18-wheeler trailer truck. His actions were caught on camera (as seen in the clip shared by Breaking911), as a mini-van ended crashing into the massive vehicle he was driving. All three people on board the car were killed.

The US government eventually released a press release stating that Harjinder had come into the US illegally via the Mexico border in 2018. According to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the Department of Homeland Security, an arrest detainer was lodged in his name. Singh was ultimately taken into custody for three count of vehicular homicide. Officials also revealed that he, too, had fled to California after the incident like Sukhjinder.

Further investigation deepened the layers of the case, as the Homeland Security disclosed that the Harjinder, an illegal migrant, had also failed an English Language Proficiency assessment. California authorities still gave Singh a Commercial Driver’s License to drive the 18-wheeler that eventually killed three people earlier this year.

Merely months down the line, Jashanpreet Singh, another Indian truck driver, was involved in a fatal, multi-car crash, according to a dashcam footage initially released by ABC7. US reports, including NBC Los Angeles, stated that the incident killed three people and injured at least four others.

Multiple ICE sources shared with US outlets at the time that even Jashanpreet was and “illegal alien,” who had crossed the southern border in 2022.