Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday said all state truck weigh stations will also serve as checkpoints for Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a deadly crash this month in which a migrant truck driver allegedly made an illegal U-turn that killed three people.
"States like California and Washington ignored the rules, gave an illegal alien a license to drive a 40-ton truck, and three people are dead as a result," Uthmeier said in a press conference Monday in Live Oak. "In response, we're supporting our Agricultural Law Enforcement and state police to ramp up inspections at state entry points for illegal aliens who may be operating large trucks using out-of-state driver's licenses."
Harjinder Singh, 28, who is from India, had been living in the U.S. illegally for six years when he allegedly tried to make an illegal U-turn in his tractor-trailer on Aug. 12 on the Florida Turnpike.
Three people were killed when their minivan struck Singh's rig, which was blocking all oncoming traffic. He fled to California but was later apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Service and extradited to Florida.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services operates 23 agricultural inspection stations that have been deputized to enforce immigration law under the federal 287(g) program. According to reports, there are plans to add a new station near the Florida-Alabama line along Highway 231.
More pullover lanes are also in the works along the northern border, and advanced X-ray technology will be installed to let officials see inside trucks as they pull through the stations.
Uthmeier also revealed that another migrant was discovered Sunday driving a commercial vehicle with a New Jersey driver's license in Bay County, Florida.
"There's no telling how many illegal aliens are in this country driving large commercial vehicles and putting American families in a safety risk every single day," the attorney general said at the briefing. "The individual, Roberto Carlos Vergara, has been arrested and is now under an ICE hold."
CBS News Miami spoke with tractor-trailer drivers at a truck stop in Davie and found differing opinions on Monday's announcement.
"I think it's a great idea," Jacob Ordonez, a truck driver from Texas, told the outlet. "For one, if you are illegal and driving you should not have a CDL [commercial driver's license] to begin with, and if you are illegal, you should not even be here. And three, you are messing it up for regular truckers."
Duane Harris, who has been driving trucks for 12 years, called the new moves "a little too much."
"Weigh stations already have systems that check out," he said. "They already have people who talk to us verbally and speak to us. The DOT [Department of Transportation] does an excellent job examining us and inspecting us and communicating with us and making sure everything is proper and correct."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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