As the case of Harjinder Singh’s Florida crash continues to be politicised, valid arguments regarding potential corruption and lax have surfaced to the top. However, along with all the sound criticism, considering an undocumented foreign truck driver was granted a Commercial Driver’s License in California, many have also deemed the August accident an excuse legitimising their racist abuses directed at Indians.

An August 12 tragedy saw Harjinder Singh, a native of India who entered the US illegally, allegedly make a reckless illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike, killing three people in the process. According to a video obtained by Breaking911, the 28-year-old Indian national was behind the wheel at the time.

His fatal blunder, which essentially left him (and his brother) unscathed, has since sparked the US authorities’ concerns. With Homeland Security and State Secretary Marco Rubio going into overdrive amid the ongoing immigration crackdown, they’ve even blocked the issuance of work visas for certain foreign truck drivers.

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Hate against Indian truckers in US on the rise

With Rubio overtly declaring foreign truck drivers “operating large tractor-trailer trucks” as key factors “endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” nothing is stopping his fellow Americans from all the name-calling.

“America needs to discuss Indian truck drivers,” tweeted user David Santa Carla, who has a follower-count of over 100,000 on X. He also plugged a different video of an Indian-origin trucker’s mistake causing menace on American roads.

The video captures someone confronting a South Asian truck driver, who appears to be on a phone call. The man being interrogated about his “thought process” therein was presumably behind the wheel and responsible for driving a large multi-wheel vehicle under a bridge that didn’t have a big-enough access pathway to let it through.

In a follow-up post, the man shows a similar video he apparently pulled off a Punjabi TikToker’s feed. “Indian truckers TikTok has a million of these,” the X user tweets alongside the video that shows a driver slowly leading a tractor trailer truck under a low-standing bridge. Although their “patience trucking” successfully gets the vehicle out, the truck top and the bridge ceiling’s concerning proximity is hard to ignore. A top left portion of the vehicle even gets severed during the unnecessary antic.

‘Deport all Punjabis’: Netizens double down on hate

In yet another subsequent post added to the thread, the critic wrote, “Indian trucker only 6 days ago. INSANE!” Although the video of the speeding truck nearly slamming into an oncoming vehicle remains unverified from our end, the thread at large became a hub for spiking Indian hate messages, mostly directed at Punjabis.

“Deport all of these punjabis. They are snakes,” commented one user. Another chimed, “They need to GTFO of my country.” Giving way to even more xenophobic comments, another person stretched out the highly controversial stereotype against Indians: “They drive as good as they smell.”

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A fourth user went on to say, “I had a foreign truck driver swerve in front of me on the interstate about a month ago. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting him. A spent the next several min driving next to his cab honking my horn and flipping him off.”

Yet another wrote, “America needs to discuss the importation of Indians. Then deport them.” Someone else fumed. “I’m done discussing. I want them out.”

Someone else went as far as slandering Indian-origin drivers following Sikhism by calling them “the turban bioweapons.”

Latest on Harjinder Singh

As for where Harjinder Singh’s case stands now, the Indian trucker was extradited from California to Florida recently. While Homeland Security and other government agencies have continued to label him an “unauthorised alien,” St Lucie Country judge Lauren Sweet also used the same term to identify him in court. The 28-year-old has since been denied bond, with potential six charges mounting against him, including the pre-existing three counts of vehicular homicide.

Meanwhile, Indian MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal has now joined the North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) in urging India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to intervene in the case and ensure his rights are retained during the legal proceedings.