Florida’s making California pay for deadly mistakes.
Attorney General James Uthmeier isn’t backing down.
And James Uthmeier asked Sean Hannity one question about California that exposed Gavin Newsom’s dangerous game.
Florida takes California to Supreme Court over triple homicide
California’s sanctuary state policies just got hauled into the Supreme Court.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the lawsuit during an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity, laying out exactly why Gavin Newsom’s immigration policies are getting Floridians killed.¹
"We filed a lawsuit against California on behalf of Florida to hold them accountable for the carnage that their sanctuary illegal immigration policies have caused to states like Florida across the country," Uthmeier told Sean Hannity.²
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/1978641628157055306
The lawsuit stems from the August 2025 triple homicide case that shocked the nation.
Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old illegal immigrant from India, made an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike near Fort Pierce, causing his 18-wheeler to jackknife across the highway.³
A minivan slammed into Singh’s trailer, killing all three occupants instantly.
What happened after the crash exposed the full scope of California’s reckless licensing policies.
Singh failed basic English tests but California gave him a commercial license anyway
The Department of Transportation’s investigation revealed Singh had no business operating a commercial vehicle.
Post-accident testing revealed Singh’s dangerous lack of language skills. He managed to answer just 2 questions correctly out of 12 on the English proficiency exam.⁴
His road sign recognition proved even worse – identifying only 1 sign out of 4 shown to him.⁵
DHS determined Singh represented "a significant threat to public safety" after reviewing the test results.⁶
But California didn’t care about English proficiency or public safety when they handed Singh a limited-term commercial driver’s license in 2024.⁷
The state operates under Assembly Bill 60, passed in 2013, which allows undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses without proving legal presence in the United States.⁸
Since the law took effect in 2015, more than one million undocumented immigrants received California driver’s licenses.⁹
Singh had already been issued a full-term commercial driver’s license in Washington state in July 2023 – which illegal immigrants aren’t allowed to obtain.¹⁰
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/1978808186032345158
California knew Singh’s immigration status when they issued his commercial license.
The state just didn’t care.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy accused California of "knowingly" putting Americans at risk by licensing drivers who can’t read English road signs.¹¹
"Non-enforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier, resulting in unqualified foreign drivers improperly acquiring licenses to operate 40-ton vehicles," Duffy said in a statement.¹²
Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins personally flew to California to extradite Singh back to Florida for prosecution.
Singh now faces three counts of vehicular homicide, each carrying up to 15 years in prison, plus federal immigration violations.¹³
Uthmeier connects the dots on California’s enablement
Florida’s Attorney General isn’t just focused on one tragic case.
Uthmeier told Hannity that California’s policies have created a pattern of preventable deaths across the country.
"Here in Florida, we can do everything right — we can back the blue, we can enforce the law, we can combat illegal immigration — but we still suffer when Gavin Newsom and liberals on the West Coast allow these illegals in," Uthmeier explained during the Fox News interview.¹⁴
The Attorney General emphasized that California enables dangerous drivers to obtain commercial licenses, then those drivers travel across state lines where their lack of qualifications becomes other states’ deadly problem.
The lawsuit marks an unprecedented challenge to California’s sanctuary policies.
Uthmeier made clear that California’s licensing policies create direct threats to families nationwide, pointing to Singh’s inability to read basic road signs as proof that the state prioritizes ideology over public safety.
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/1978641628157055306
Look, here’s what makes this lawsuit different from typical immigration enforcement battles.
Florida’s not challenging California’s right to make its own immigration policy decisions within state borders.
The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over disputes between states when one state’s policies cause demonstrable harm to another.¹⁶
Florida’s arguing that California’s driver licensing system created a direct threat that crossed state lines and killed three Floridians on a Florida highway.
The legal theory mirrors interstate pollution and water rights cases where the Supreme Court has held states accountable for policies that harm other states.¹⁷
California’s response to the Singh case revealed exactly why Florida filed this lawsuit.
Newsom’s office tried deflecting responsibility by claiming Singh had federal work authorization.
"Hey, genius: the federal government (TRUMP ADMIN) already confirmed that this guy meets federal and state immigration requirements – YOU issued him a work permit (EAD). As usual, the Trump Administration is either lying or clueless," Newsom’s office posted on X.¹⁸
https://twitter.com/AnthonyCabassa_/status/1957513813793894594
But DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin exposed that as a lie.
"False. Harjinder Singh is in the United States illegally and his work authorization was rejected under the Trump Administration on September 14, 2020," McLaughlin replied. "It was later approved under the Biden Administration June 9, 2021."¹⁹
The Trump Administration denied Singh’s work authorization in 2020.
Biden’s DHS approved it nine months later.
And California handed him a commercial driver’s license without ensuring he could read English road signs or understand basic traffic laws.
Newsom’s trying to blame Trump for a licensing disaster that California created.
The stakes go beyond one lawsuit
This case could reshape how states handle immigration policy spillover effects.
Eighteen other states plus Washington D.C. have followed California’s lead by issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.²⁰
If Florida prevails at the Supreme Court, those states might face similar accountability for cross-border consequences of their policies.
The timing amplifies the political stakes.
President Trump issued an executive order in June 2025 reinforcing federal requirements that commercial truck drivers demonstrate English language proficiency.²¹
The Singh crash happened just two months later, vindicating Trump’s focus on trucking safety and immigration enforcement.
Transportation Secretary Duffy threatened to withhold $33 million in federal highway funds from California unless the state ensures commercial drivers meet English proficiency standards within 30 days.²²
California faces similar federal funding threats for its sanctuary policies in other areas.
The Singh case demonstrates the real-world consequences of California’s ideological commitment to sanctuary policies over public safety.
Three Florida families lost loved ones because California prioritized political virtue signaling over basic driver competency standards.
Some very nervous state officials in blue states are watching this lawsuit carefully.
If the Supreme Court holds California liable for interstate harm caused by its licensing policies, the entire sanctuary state framework faces legal jeopardy.
Florida’s not asking the Supreme Court to strike down California’s immigration policies.
The lawsuit demands California be held accountable when those policies kill people in other states.
That’s a legal theory with strong precedent and devastating implications for sanctuary states across America.
¹ James Uthmeier, interview by Sean Hannity, Hannity, Fox News, October 16, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, "Criminal Illegal Alien Recklessly Driving an 18-Wheeler Kills Three in Florida," news release, August 16, 2025.
⁴ Federation for American Immigration Reform, "Two Illegal Aliens Arrested, One Extradited to Florida for Triple Vehicular Homicide," FAIRUS.org, August 25, 2025.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Bill Melugin, "Illegal immigrant truck driver Harjinder Singh failed English and road sign tests," Fox News, August 20, 2025.
⁸ "Driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants in the United States," Wikipedia, accessed October 16, 2025.
⁹ "More than a million undocumented immigrants gained driver’s licenses in California," CalMatters, January 27, 2023.
¹⁰ Bill Melugin, "Illegal immigrant truck driver Harjinder Singh failed English and road sign tests," Fox News, August 20, 2025.
¹¹ James Uthmeier, interview by Sean Hannity, Hannity, Fox News, October 16, 2025.
¹² Federation for American Immigration Reform, "Two Illegal Aliens Arrested, One Extradited to Florida for Triple Vehicular Homicide," FAIRUS.org, August 25, 2025.
¹³ Bill Chappell, "A deadly truck crash in Florida has fueled an immigration fight. Here’s what to know," ABC News, August 27, 2025.
¹⁴ James Uthmeier, interview by Sean Hannity, Hannity, Fox News, October 16, 2025, transcript published in "Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier Files Supreme Court Lawsuit Against Gavin Newsom and California," The Gateway Pundit, October 16, 2025.
¹⁵ "Modern Suits Between States," Constitution Annotated, Congress.gov, accessed October 16, 2025.
¹⁶ "Supreme Court Jurisdiction in Controversies Between States," FindLaw, July 15, 2022.
¹⁷ Ibid.
¹⁸ Cameron Arcand, "Expert reveals how illegal immigrant trucker may have gotten commercial license before fatal Florida crash," Fox News, August 20, 2025.
¹⁹ Ibid.
²⁰ Bill Chappell, "A deadly truck crash in Florida has fueled an immigration fight. Here’s what to know," ABC News, August 27, 2025.
²¹ Ibid.
²² Ibid.
