Federal Audits Expose Widespread Commercial Truck Drivers’ Licensing Fraud, Illegal Immigrants, Fake Schools, and Bribery

Several high-profile fatal crashes in 2025 involving non-citizen truck drivers prompted the Department of Transportation to investigate how commercial driver’s licenses were being issued. Crashes in Florida that killed three people, in Texas that killed five, and in Alabama that killed two exposed widespread fraud and irregularities, including fake CDL schools, bribery schemes, fraudulent Mexican licenses, and state failures to properly verify immigration status.

On August 12, 2025, a crash on the Florida Turnpike killed three people when Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old driver from India, attempted an illegal U-turn in an area marked for official use only. Singh had entered the United States illegally through Mexico in 2018 and later obtained a California commercial driver’s license. His trailer jackknifed, causing a minivan to become wedged underneath.

Investigators reported that Singh had been denied a work permit in 2020 and later received one in April 2025. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration investigators tested Singh for English proficiency, and he answered only two of twelve verbal questions correctly and identified just one of four traffic signs. ---More...