TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has filed a federal lawsuit against California and Washington over the states’ “sanctuary” polices, which he claims have put others in danger.
The lawsuit comes following the arrest of Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old truck driver from California, who officials said killed three people after making an improper U-turn on a Florida Turnpike in St. Lucie County.
Trump moves to lower IVF costs with insurance guidance, drug agreement
Authorities said Singh, who has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide, entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 and got a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) in California.
In the lawsuit, Uthmeier asserts that California and Washington “abandoned their duties” in enforcing the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which states that applicants must provide proof of citizenship when obtaining a CDL.
Uthmeier claims the 2017 California Values Act, in specific, violates this requirement by prohibiting law enforcement agencies and the DMV from inquiring into a person’s immigration status. Washington adopted a similar act in 2019.
The attorney general said these “sanctuary laws,” as he refers to them, have created problems beyond California and Washington. The lawsuit cites various cases in other states, including the August crash in St. Lucie County.
According to the lawsuit, Singh answered two of 12 questions correctly on an English proficiency test and correctly identified one of four traffic signs. The suit also states that Singh failed 13 examinations before being issued a CDL in Washington. He obtained a CDL in California the following year.
“All of this was preventable,” Uthmeier wrote in the lawsuit. “Under current federal law, this driver should have never received a license from any State to operate a commercial motor vehicle.”
