The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a September 9, 2026, press release following a detainer issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for an individual of Indian origin who it identified as an “illegal alien” charged with causing a semi-truck crash that killed a woman in Ohio.
The DHS in the same press release identified other Indian-origin truck drivers and later posted a related X.com post that used the generic “Mr. Singh” name as a warning, a post to which Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi responded with a strongly worded statement.
In the Sept. 9, press release, the DHS quoting local reporting (According to local reporting) said the crash took place on September 2 in Brown County, Ohio. A semi-truck attempted to pass another vehicle by moving into the opposite lane, colliding head-on with a car being driven by 50-year-old Brenda Watson who died at the scene. A witness to the crash said that the semi-truck was speeding and had plenty of time and space to merge back into the correct lane, the DHS said.
According to details provided by DHS, Singh had been granted a commercial driver’s license (CDL) by the state of California. Singh, the DHS said, illegally entered the United States through Arizona in October 2023 and was encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol.
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“He was then RELEASED into the country by the Biden Administration. In July 2024, he applied for work authorization, which was granted by the Biden Administration in August 2024,” the press release says, also blaming the “sanctuary” policy of Governor Gavin Newsom of California.
The DHS goes on to identify 5 other cases where truckers, 4 of them of Indian origin, were involved in alleged criminal offenses:
“These include:
- In January, ICE lodged detainers for Gunpreet Singh and Jasveer Singh, criminal illegal aliens from India, after they had been arrested for smuggling more than 300 pounds of cocaine in a semi-truck in Putnam County, Indiana. Governor Newsom’s DMV had given both men CDLs.
- In December 2025, ICE arrested Gerson Emir Cuadra Soto, an illegal alien from Honduras and MS-13 member who is wanted in his home country for a quadruple homicide, in Grand Island, Nebraska. He had been given a driver’s license by Newsom’s DMV.
- In November 2025, Rajinder Kumar, an illegal alien from India who had been given a CDL by Newsom’s DMV, jackknifed his semi-truck and trailer on a highway in Deschutes County, Oregon, killing a newlywed couple. ICE arrested Kumar in April 2026.
- In August 2025, ICE lodged a detainer for Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India, after he made an illegal U-turn in his semi-truck and killed three people in St. Lucie County, Florida. Singh had obtained his CDL in Newsom’s California.”
The DHS in a social media post, which has since been removed, depicted a man labeled “Mr. Singh” who is confronted with a Transformers-style deportation graphic, which tells him in upper case letter, “GET OFF OUR ROADS, YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE MR. SINGH” and warned him to “self-deport or find out”.
Congressman Krishnamoorthi, in a statement issued Sept. 10, said, “Our government should never use its power to demonize people or suggest that their faith, heritage, or identity means they do not belong here. Yet in an official social media post styled as a movie poster, the Trump Department of Homeland Security depicted a man labeled “Mr. Singh” as the villain, told him to “get off our roads,” and warned him to “self-deport or find out.”
Krishnamoorthi went on to say, “More than 160,000 people in the United States share the surname Singh. When the government demonizes a name carried by so many Sikh families, it fuels xenophobia and casts suspicion on an entire community. Sikh and South Asian Americans are as American as anyone. This is our country and our home, and there should be no room for hate here.”
The Congressional Caucus for Asian and Pacific Islanders, CAPAC, also put out a statement strongly condemning the DHS social media post. Congresswoman Grace Meng, D-NY, chair of CAPAC, said in a statement – “We are outraged by the blatantly racist and xenophobic social media posts coming from the Department of Homeland Security that portray the Sikh community, and other immigrants, as enemies of the United States. Sikh Americans are not enemies of this country – they are our neighbors, our colleagues, our friends, and proud Americans who contribute to every part of our nation.”
Meng went on to say, “Millions of Sikhs bear the name ‘Singh,’ including an American patriot and trailblazer, Rep. Dalip Singh Saund, who became the first Asian American ever elected to Congress in 1956. To suggest that someone’s name, faith, or immigrant background makes them a threat to America is not only offensive – it is dangerous.”