Sikh Trucker’s Fatal Error Produces Fallout in US and India
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 29 Aug, 2025

Harjinder Singh’s illegal and fatal U-turn may impact millions of US immigrants as well as the Sikh separatist movement in India.

When 28 year-old Sikh truck driver Harjinder Singh made an illegal U-turn that killed three people in Florida earlier this month, the outcry was swift. 

President Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and many others wasted no time making this unintentional tragedy an immigration issue.  The White House claims that Singh was here illegally, which allows Trump to argue that a continued deportation push will make the country safer.

In many ways this incident has lit the fuse of a powderkeg that has already been heating up for some time.  But to describe the fallout in terms of Democrat versus Republican fails to capture the tangle of issues at play.

FL Governor DeSantis (right) and CA Governor Newsom face off in a 2023 debate on Fox News

The Incident

Stockton, California resident Harjinder Singh was driving on Florida’s Turnpike in St. Lucie County when he made an illegal U-turn that caused the semi-trailer he was driving to block all northbound lanes.  Unable to stop in time, a minivan slammed into the side of the truck, ultimately killing the 30 year-old driver and two passengers aged 37 and 54.  Singh and his own 25 year-old passenger, another Sikh man from California, were unharmed.

Truck driving is the primary profession for 20-30% of Sikhs in the US.  There are about 150,000 Sikh truck drivers, many of whom are based out of California.  One can assume that like many in the profession Singh is working class.

He reportedly came to the US in 2018.  But while the White House has repeatedly called him an illegal alien, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Singh “was granted a federal work permit and appears to have an ongoing asylum claim allowing him to legally remain in the country.” 

Following the accident, Singh was accused of fleeing home to California where he remained until Florida’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins personally travelled across the country to extradite him back to the Sunshine state.  There was no evidence that Singh was unwilling to cooperate with authorities and return when summoned. 

Collins has, with wild illogic, accused California's Governor Gavin Newsom of personally being responsible for the deaths involved, stating “Three lives lost because of Gavin Newsom. Because of California’s failed policies." 

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with President Trump

Political Battlelines

Governor Gavin Newsom, who is seen as an early frontrunner for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has been publicly sparring with Trump and other Republican leaders since well before the crash. 

In 2023 Newsom faced off against then-presidential candidate Ron DeSantis in a televised debate. Now their respective states, California and Florida, are at the center of this tragedy and the ensuing fallout.

Immigration, also at the forefront of this incident, has of course defined much of Trump's second term in office.  While the President’s push to deport illegal immigrants was previously viewed at least somewhat favorably by a majority of Americans, most are now dissatisfied with the way he has gone about it, particularly his targeting of low-wage workers who have committed no crimes while in the US. 

According to a UMass Amherst poll from earlier this month, Trump’s approval rating on immigration has dropped nine points since April from 50% to 41%.  Polls from the AP, Pew, and Reuters tell roughly the same story.

Therefore, it would likely surprise nobody were the Trump administration eager for a high-profile case that seemingly justifies his extremism on immigration.  

And in response, one might expect a prominent Trump foil like Newsom to take the opposite viewpoint of the President’s harsh denunciation of Singh, such as calling for leniency in his sentencing or reminding the public that this incident might have happened regardless of one’s immigration status.

After all, on average over 100 people die in traffic-related incidents in this country every day. 

Instead, Newsom appears to be making the case that Trump and DeSantis have not gone far enough in stopping crimes like this one. 

Newsom was quick to point out that Singh came to this country during Trump’s first term.  And in Newsom’s words, by allowing Singh to return to California after the crash, DeSantis let a “murder suspect walk.”

But if Newsom is an example of a Democrat’s eagerness to throw the book at an immigrant, a prominent Sikh Trump-supporting lawyer who has jumped to Singh’s defense is equally muddling the political battle lines.

Sikhs for Justice leader Gurpatwant Pannum Singh speaks on behalf or inmate Harjinder Singh

Sikhs for Justice

On August 17, less than a week before the accident, members of the self-described human rights advocacy group Sikhs for Justice, or SFJ, held an event in Washington, DC titled “Sikh Prayer for MAGA: Long Live Trump — Long Live America.” 

Per the organization’s founder Gurpatwant Pannun Singh, “America under Trump remains a beacon for political freedom.” In January, Pannun Singh was present at Trump’s inaugural celebrations in DC.

On Monday, Pannun Singh held a press conference outside of the jail where Harjinder Singh is being held in an effort to build public support for the inmate.

The move wasn’t  necessarily surprising given their shared Sikh identities.  Pannun Singh’s organization SFJ is devoted to Sikh separatism in India, which, also called the Khalistan movement, is aimed at the creation of a sovereign ethno-religious Sikh homeland to be created from parts of present-day northern India.

The Khalistan movement has been long and intense.  In 1984, the Indian government conducted Operation Blue Star, which, aimed at curtailing Khalistani activists, left thousands of Sikhs dead.

In retaliation, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh body guards just months later.

The present day Indian government, led by Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, is firmly at odds with the Khalistan movement.  In 2023 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Modi government of assassinating a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil.

That same year the Biden administration announced that it had uncovered a plot by the Indian government to have Pannun Singh himself assassinated.  India has officially designated SFJ a Terrorist Organization and Pannun a terrorist.

All of this is to say that Pannun Singh’s involvement in this incident gives it an even deeper level of complexity.

And while Pannun Singh has strongly praised Trump, he may simply be trying to curry favor with the President on behalf of SFJ.  Now, supporting Harjinder Singh will surely require Pannun Singh to walk a tight rope and avoid alienating the President from his movement. 

But whatever Pannun Singh’s motives in either direction, SFJ’s involvement in this case is likely to be seen as a godsend for Harjinder Singh. And maybe even the families of the crash victims.

A Change.org petition supporting Harjinder Singh has garnered over five million signatures

Next Steps

During Tuesday’s press conference, Pannun Singh announced that SFJ would be donating $100,000 in “compassion aid” to the families of the crash victims.  The money will be given to Governor DeSantis’s office to then give to the victims, a clear sign of SFJ’s eagerness to curry favor with Singh’s detractors rather than further antagonize them.

Pannun Singh opened his remarks by offering prayers for the victims before describing a meeting he had just had with Harjinder Singh, noting that "I saw sorrow and suffering in his eyes." 

According to Pannun Singh, immediately after the crash, Singh smashed the victims’ van window to get to them and held their hand while reassuring them that help was on the way.

Pannun Singh also noted that rather than fleeing, as he has been accused of, Singh was instructed to return to his home state of California. 

SFJ is also not the only organization working on behalf of Singh. 

Additionally, a Change.org petition started by Collective Punjabi Youth has garnered over three million signatures. The petition asks for lenience in the sentencing. It states:

“We, the undersigned, urge Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Board of Executive Clemency to re-examine and reduce the sentence for a 28-year-old truck driver involved in a fatal U-turn crash on Florida’s Turnpike in South Florida. This was a tragic accident — not a deliberate act. While accountability matters, the severity of the charges against him does not align with the circumstances of the incident.”

But any sort of leniency for Singh will certainly be an uphill battle. 

Tom Bakkedahl, the Florida state attorney in charge of prosecuting Singh has made it clear that he’s seeking a harsh sentence, stating that “I'm not letting this guy go. He's going to be a resident of the state of Florida for a very long time.”

Further highlighting the rift between states, he took a shot at California, describing it as “not a very friendly jurisdiction to the state of Florida.”

When asked about the petition, Bakkedahl shrugged it off, telling a reporter “Quite frankly, I don’t care if they had 250 million signatures.”

Florida’s Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins dismissed the petition as well saying “I saw the petition, and ultimately, I think people are missing the mark on this one. There are three lives lost.”

Broader Implications

In the wake of the incident, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a pause on the issuance of all employment visas for commercial drivers.  Per Rubio, “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.”

However, there is no actual evidence that immigrants are involved in more crashes than the general population of truck drivers.

This move could act as a major blow to the livelihoods of not just the Sikh community, but other foreigners who rely on the profession as well. 

It’s also bad news for the industry in general.  According to the American Trucking Association, there is a growing shortage of truck drivers as a result of factors like age and low quality of life. As with other undesirable professions, there has been a greater willingness by immigrants to work in the field.  About one in five truckers is currently a foreigner. 

From a social aspect, the ensuing anti-immigrant rhetoric surrounding this incident is likely to further fan the flames of bigotry and put at risk the safety of foreign-born residents of this country, whether here legally or not.

The Sikh community in particular is all too familiar with the ramifications of demonizing a minority group.  Just four days after the atrocities of 9/11, Sikh gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot to death by a gunman who had proclaimed that he was "going to go out and shoot some towel-heads.” It was just one of approximately 300 anti-Sikh incidents in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, despite Sikhs having no involvement in the terrorist attacks. 

Now, as Harjinder Singh awaits his fate, one can only hope that justice will remain blind to political theater and that cooler heads will prevail, regardless of their position on the political spectrum.