‘Scared to go back to India’: Truck driver Harjinder Singh who killed 3 in Florida was allowed to stay in US in 2018 on $5,000 bond

Indian-origin truck driver Harjinder Singh who killed three in Florida said in 2018 he was scared to go back to India.

After Indian-origin truck driver Harjinder Singh killed three taking a wrong turn with his semi-truck in Florida, the Donald Trump administration dug out all his previous records and it’s now confirmed that he was arrested by the Border Patrol two days after he illegally entered the country through California in 2018. The Department of Homeland Security said that following his arrest on September 20, 2018, Harjinder Singh’s immigrant proceedings are pending. When he was arrested in 2018, he was processed for expedited removal but he claimed at that time that he was scared to return to India. Fox News reported that his fear was affirmed by US Citizenship and Immigration Services and he was released on a $5,000 immigration bond.

3 killed on Florida Turnpike

Singh was arrested after three people were killed near Fort Pierce on the Florida Turnpike on August 12. All three of them were in a minivan. Two passengers, a 37-year-old woman from Pompano Beach and a 54-year-old man from Miami, died at the scene, and the driver, a 30-year-old man from Florida City, later died in the hospital.Singh was arrested by US Marshals in California on Saturday on a warrant for three counts of vehicular homicide in connection with a deadly crash in Florida, according to Fox News. Under Florida law, vehicular homicide is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. After the video recorded inside the semi-truck went viral, Indians were attacked for driving mishaps on US roads and after Singh was found to be an illegal alien from India, the incident became a major political flashpoint. DHS said Singh stated that he does not have a serious physical or mental medical condition, has “no known immediate relatives serving in the US military and is not the primary caretaker of a person with mental or physical disability, a minor or person with a serious illness.” Singh is also unmarried, has no minor dependent children and is not a victim of domestic violence or human trafficking — factors that could have stopped his immediate deportation. “After careful consideration of all factors and available records, Singh is considered a significant threat to public safety and is an exceptional circumstance warranting enforcement action due to the serious nature of his criminal history,” DHS said.