2.4 Million People Support Trucker Harjinder Singh Reshaping America’s Immigration and Trucking Debate

The dashboard camera footage tells a stark story. On August 12, a massive tractor-trailer begins an illegal U-turn across Florida’s Turnpike near Fort Pierce, blocking traffic lanes. Within seconds, a black minivan traveling at highway speed slams into the side of the truck trailer, unable to stop in time. The impact is catastrophic. All three occupants of the van are killed instantly.

Behind the wheel of that truck was Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old driver from Stockton, California. In the weeks since that fatal moment, Singh’s case has ignited a firestorm that extends far beyond a Florida courtroom, becoming a flashpoint for debates over immigration policy, commercial driving regulations, and criminal justice reform.

The Petition That Roared

More than 2.4 million people have signed a Change.org petition calling for clemency for Harjinder Singh, making it one of the most-signed criminal justice petitions in recent memory. Created by “Collective Punjabi youth,” the petition paints Singh not as a criminal, but as a young man whose life has been derailed by a tragic accident.

“This was a catastrophe, not a criminal act,” supporters argue, emphasizing that Singh has no prior criminal record and fully cooperated with authorities after the crash. They point to precedent: in 2021, Colorado trucker Rogel Aguilera-Mederos initially received 110 years for a fatal crash involving four deaths, but after over 5 million people signed a petition, Governor Jared Polis reduced the sentence to 10 years.

The petition’s rapid growth reflects the mobilization of immigrant communities across the United States, particularly within the Punjabi and broader South Asian diaspora. Singh’s relatives in Punjab, India, have made emotional pleas for mercy. “His age is 28 years, and if he gets 45 years of jail, then you can imagine what will be the condition of his family,” relative Dilbagh Singh told the Times of India.

But the momentum behind the petition has met an immovable wall in Florida’s state government.

“No Deal”

Governor Ron DeSantis’ response was swift and unequivocal. When asked about the petition, his Deputy Press Secretary Molly Best delivered a three-word response that encapsulated the administration’s stance: “No deal. In Florida, criminal actions have consequences.”

DeSantis himself took to social media to frame the case in broader immigration terms, declaring that Singh “should have never been in our country in the first place!”

The governor’s position reflects Florida’s increasingly hardline approach to immigration-related crimes under his administration. Singh faces three counts of vehicular homicide—each carrying up to 15 years in prison—for a total potential sentence of 45 years, followed by automatic deportation.

Singh’s path to that fateful moment on the Florida Turnpike reveals the complexities and failures of America’s immigration system. After crossing into California from Mexico in September 2018, Singh was detained by Border Patrol and marked for fast-track deportation back to India.

The petition’s rapid growth reflects the mobilization of immigrant communities across the United States, particularly within the Punjabi and broader South Asian diaspora.

But Singh played a card available to many asylum seekers: he claimed fear of returning to his home country. Immigration officials accepted his claim, giving him grounds for an asylum case that would be tested in court. He was released on a $5,000 immigration bond in January 2019 while his case was pending.

The problem was that Singh’s case, like hundreds of thousands of others, got lost in the massive backlog of asylum claims choking America’s immigration courts. He never saw a courtroom. During this legal limbo, he traveled to California and somehow obtained a commercial driver’s license—a process that remains unclear given his immigration status.

“The system is broken,” says immigration attorney Maria Rodriguez, who specializes in asylum cases but is not involved in Singh’s case. “People are released into communities with cases that may not be heard for years, if ever. There’s no meaningful oversight or tracking of what happens to them.”

The Moment of Impact

The crash itself was captured in disturbing detail by the truck’s dashboard camera. The footage shows Singh casually beginning his U-turn across multiple lanes of highway traffic, apparently oblivious to the minivan approaching at speed. The area where Singh attempted his maneuver was clearly marked with “official use only” signage prohibiting U-turns.

State and federal investigators later confirmed that Singh lacked English proficiency, failing to correctly identify road signs or answer basic language questions. This revelation has amplified concerns about how Singh obtained his commercial driver’s license and whether proper language testing was conducted.

In the video, Singh remains eerily calm after the collision. He peers out his window at the devastation, wordlessly puts the truck in park, and turns off the engine. Moments later, he’s seen standing nearby as emergency crews work to extract the mangled minivan from beneath his trailer.

The victims—a 37-year-old woman from Pompano Beach, a 54-year-old man from Miami, and a 30-year-old driver from Florida City—died at the scene. Their identities have not been publicly released, but their deaths have become a rallying cry for stricter immigration enforcement and commercial driving oversight.

Policy Shockwaves

The case’s reverberations reached the highest levels of government within days. The U.S. State Department is pausing the issuing of work visas for foreigners looking to become commercial truck drivers in the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday.

“Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Rubio declared. “The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.”

The visa suspension affects thousands of prospective foreign commercial drivers and has drawn criticism from trucking industry groups facing severe driver shortages. Indian lawmaker Harsimrat Kaur Badal responded that mass action against drivers “would have a detrimental effect on trucking families and would be discriminatory.”

The case has also intensified scrutiny of California’s Assembly Bill 60 (AB 60), enacted in 2015, which allows undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses. These licenses are marked “not for federal identification,” but critics argue the policy creates opportunities for individuals without legal status to access commercial driving privileges.

A Tale of Two Narratives

The Singh case has crystallized competing narratives about immigration, accountability, and mercy in America. To his supporters, Singh represents the human cost of an immigration system that leaves people in legal limbo while expecting them to rebuild their lives. They see a young man who made a tragic error in judgment but doesn’t deserve to spend the rest of his life in prison.

“Harjinder is not a criminal,” the petition states. “He is a hardworking individual who made a terrible mistake that resulted in an unimaginable tragedy. While we deeply mourn the loss of three precious lives, we believe that justice should be tempered with mercy.”

But to critics, Singh embodies everything wrong with America’s approach to illegal immigration. They argue that the three victims would be alive if Singh had been deported as originally planned in 2018. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson called the incident “a devastating tragedy made even worse by the fact that it was totally preventable.”

Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk went further, writing on social media: “Deport him to CECOT for life. And then strip California of every federal dollar for as long as it takes. Rogue states must not be allowed to continue shielding, coddling, and licensing illegals.”

The Broader Implications

Beyond the immediate criminal case, Singh’s story has highlighted systemic issues that extend across multiple policy areas. The American Trucking Associations’ Chief Operating Officer Dan Horvath told Newsweek the incident “underscores the importance and urgency of the work that the Trump Administration is doing to audit CDL issuances nationwide, in addition to its enhanced enforcement of English-language proficiency—a fundamental requirement for operating commercial vehicles in interstate commerce.”

The case has also exposed the strain on America’s immigration court system, where asylum cases can languish for years without resolution. Currently, more than 3 million cases are pending in immigration courts nationwide, with average wait times exceeding four years in some jurisdictions.

“This case shows what happens when people fall through the cracks of our broken immigration system,” says policy analyst David Chen at the Migration Policy Institute. “Singh was in legal limbo for years, with no meaningful oversight or support. It’s a recipe for tragedies like this.”

As Singh sits in a Florida jail cell awaiting trial, the fundamental question remains: what constitutes appropriate punishment for a tragic accident that killed three innocent people?

Legal experts note that vehicular homicide charges typically require proving gross negligence or reckless behavior, not just a momentary lapse in judgment. Prosecutors will need to demonstrate that Singh’s actions went beyond mere carelessness to criminal recklessness.

“The fact that this was captured on video will be crucial,” says criminal defense attorney Lisa Martinez, who specializes in vehicular homicide cases. “Juries will see exactly what happened and make their own judgments about whether Singh’s actions were criminally negligent or just a terrible mistake.”

The Department of Homeland Security has already rendered its verdict, describing Singh as “a significant threat to public safety” and applying for his deportation. He remains in custody without bond, deemed too dangerous to release pending trial.

A Nation Divided

The petition signatures continue to climb, now exceeding 2.4 million and growing by thousands daily. Rally organizers are planning demonstrations outside the Florida State Capitol, while victims’ rights groups are mobilizing counter-protests demanding justice for the three people killed.

The case has become a Rorschach test for American attitudes toward immigration, criminal justice, and the balance between accountability and compassion. Social media platforms buzz with heated debates, while news networks feature dueling panels of experts arguing over Singh’s fate.

For supporters like petition creator Manisha Kaushal, the case represents a test of America’s capacity for mercy. “While accountability matters, the severity of the charges against him does not align with the circumstances of the incident,” the petition argues.

For critics, it represents a test of America’s commitment to protecting its citizens from the consequences of failed immigration policies. “How many more innocent people must die before leaders stop playing games with public safety?” asks DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

Singh’s trial is expected to begin in early 2026, with prosecutors preparing to present dashboard camera footage, expert testimony about commercial driving standards, and evidence of Singh’s immigration status. Defense attorneys are likely to argue that while Singh made a grave error, it doesn’t rise to the level of criminal homicide.

The case will unfold against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown, with Singh potentially becoming a symbol of either prosecutorial overreach or necessary enforcement, depending on one’s perspective.

Whatever the outcome, the Harjinder Singh case has already left an indelible mark on American policy discussions. It has exposed the fault lines in the nation’s approach to immigration, highlighted gaps in commercial driving oversight, and raised fundamental questions about justice and mercy in an increasingly polarized society.

The three victims of that August day—whose names remain largely unknown while Singh’s has become a rallying cry—represent the human cost of policy failures that span multiple administrations and levels of government. Their deaths have become ammunition in political battles they never chose to join, their families’ grief transformed into advocacy for causes they may or may not support.

As the legal process grinds forward and the petition signatures mount, one thing remains certain: the fatal turn that Harjinder Singh attempted on a Florida highway has forever changed the national conversation about who belongs in America, who deserves mercy, and what price should be paid when policy failures turn deadly.

The dashboard camera that captured those final seconds before impact continues to serve as silent witness to a tragedy that has become much more than the sum of its parts—a symbol of a nation grappling with its values, its failures, and its future.