Five Republican members of Ohio’s congressional delegation are demanding answers from California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the commercial driver’s license issued to a truck driver now charged with aggravated vehicular homicide in a Sept. 2 crash that killed an Ohio woman.
Reps. Dave Taylor, Warren Davidson, Max Miller, Jim Jordan and Michael Rulli announced Monday that they had sent Newsom a letter seeking information about why California issued a CDL to Manjit Singh, whether California officials were aware of his immigration status, and whether the state will cooperate with the Trump administration on future CDL eligibility enforcement.
The letter marks a new congressional escalation in the growing national fight over immigration status, CDL issuance and state responsibility for commercial-driver licensing.
The lawmakers’ letter is a demand for answers, not a subpoena, court ruling or formal finding that California violated federal law. Their claims about California’s responsibility remain political and policy allegations unless established through an investigation, administrative proceeding or court action.
Fatal Ohio crash triggered the latest dispute
The congressional letter stems from a fatal Sept. 2 crash on U.S. Route 68 in Brown County, Ohio.
According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s preliminary account, a 2019 Volvo tractor-trailer driven by Singh, 39, was traveling northbound and attempting to pass another northbound vehicle when it collided head-on with a southbound Chevrolet Cruze driven by 50-year-old Brenda Watson of West Union.
Manjit Singh, 39, is shown in a booking photo. Ohio State Highway Patrol says Singh was driving the tractor-trailer involved in the Sept. 2 fatal crash on U.S. 68 in Brown County, Ohio. Singh has been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide. The charge is an allegation, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Watson died at the scene. Singh was not injured.
Court records subsequently showed Singh was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide. A witness cited in the criminal complaint alleged that Singh had been traveling at excessive speed and had time and space to return to the proper lane before the collision. Those assertions remain allegations in a pending criminal case, and Singh has not been convicted.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol has described the crash investigation as ongoing.
Brenda Watson, 50, of West Union, Ohio, is shown in a family photograph. Watson was killed in the Sept. 2 crash on U.S. 68 in Brown County involving a tractor-trailer driven by Manjit Singh, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Congress turns focus toward California’s licensing decision
Taylor and the other lawmakers argue that the case raises questions about how Singh received a California CDL.
In their letter, they wrote that immigrants unlawfully present in the country should not be operating commercial trucks and said states must ensure that CDL applicants meet federal and state qualification requirements.
“Illegal immigrants have no place in our country, let alone on our nation’s roads behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound truck,” the lawmakers wrote.
The lawmakers specifically asked Newsom to explain why Singh was granted a CDL, whether California knew about his immigration status when the license was issued, and whether California will cooperate with federal efforts to prevent ineligible drivers from holding commercial licenses.
The congressional release does not establish that California knowingly issued Singh a license in violation of the law that existed at the time.
DHS says Singh entered illegally, later received work authorization
The Department of Homeland Security previously said Singh entered the United States illegally through Arizona in October 2023 and was encountered by U.S. Border Patrol before being released into the country.
DHS also said Singh applied for employment authorization in July 2024 and that the authorization was approved the following month. The department said he later obtained a California commercial driver’s license.
ICE lodged a detainer with the Brown County Jail after Singh’s arrest.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin sharply criticized both the prior federal immigration policy and California’s licensing practices after the crash, saying Singh “has no business being in our country or on our roads.”
DHS’s argument that federal immigration policy or California licensing policy caused the crash is the administration’s position, not an established finding by investigators or a court.
The crash itself is being investigated as a traffic and criminal case based on Singh’s alleged driving conduct.
A wider fight over non-domiciled CDLs
The Ohio case arrives during an unprecedented federal crackdown on commercial licensing.
FMCSA has spent much of the past year tightening oversight of non-domiciled CDLs, examining state licensing programs, removing training providers from the federal Training Provider Registry and working with DHS and ICE on investigations involving suspected licensing fraud and unauthorized commercial drivers.
Federal officials have also increasingly focused on the role of states that issue CDLs to noncitizens, particularly when immigration documents, work authorization or license expiration dates do not align with federal requirements.
The dispute has already produced enforcement actions, funding threats, litigation and direct clashes between federal officials and California leaders.
Monday’s congressional letter adds another pressure point by moving the Ohio fatal-crash case from a criminal proceeding into the broader federal debate over who should be eligible to operate commercial vehicles and which level of government is responsible when licensing systems fail.
Taylor pushing multiple CDL bills
Taylor has also introduced several pieces of legislation addressing commercial-driver eligibility and enforcement, including the Non-Domiciled CDL Reporting Act, the VERIFY Act, the REVOKE Act and the Commercial Motor Vehicle English Proficiency Act, according to his office.
Those proposals are separate from Singh’s criminal case and from the lawmakers’ letter to Newsom.
They reflect a broader effort in Congress to place additional federal controls around commercial-driver identification, immigration status and qualification requirements.
California has not publicly answered the letter
A review of Newsom’s official website Monday evening found several new state announcements but no publicly posted response to the Ohio lawmakers’ CDL letter at the time of publication.
That could change if California officials respond directly to the delegation.
For now, the central questions remain unanswered:
What documentation did California rely upon when Singh received his CDL, what immigration or work-authorization information was available to state licensing officials, and did the license comply with the federal rules in effect when it was issued?
Those answers could determine whether this remains primarily a criminal case involving one driver or develops into another major federal-state fight over CDL oversight.
