Partap Singh: Crash, ICE Detention, and Dalilah’s Law

Partap Singh is the Indian national whose June 2024 commercial truck crash in California left five-year-old Dalilah Coleman with a traumatic brain injury, and whose case became the Trump administration’s central example in a nationwide crackdown on undocumented truck drivers and in a proposed federal law known as Dalilah’s Law. Singh, 28, had entered the United States illegally in October 2022 but held a California commercial driver’s license at the time of the crash.¹

What Happened in the Crash

Singh was driving an 18-wheeler in California in June 2024 when he caused a multi-vehicle pileup. The California Highway Patrol found he was traveling at an unsafe speed and failed to stop for traffic and a construction zone.¹ Dalilah’s father, Marcus Coleman, later told Congress that Singh’s truck struck his family’s vehicle at roughly 60 miles per hour.²

Dalilah suffered a traumatic brain injury that left her unable to walk or talk. She now uses a wheelchair. Her stepfather and several others were hospitalized. Marcus Coleman has described his daughter as a child who “smiles all the time” and “is always happy” despite her injuries.³

How Singh Got Into the Country and Behind the Wheel

Singh, from Punjab, India, crossed the southern border from Mexico illegally in October 2022. He was processed and released into the country under immigration procedures then in use.⁴

Despite lacking legal immigration status, Singh obtained a commercial driver’s license from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which at the time permitted certain non-citizens to receive CDLs.¹ That licensing pathway became a focus of federal criticism after the crash and sits at the center of the policy fight his case helped set in motion.

Arrest and ICE Detention

More than a year after the crash, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents obtained an arrest warrant and took Singh into custody in Fresno, California, on August 29, 2025.⁵ He was transferred to the Mesa Verde Detention Center in Bakersfield, California, and has remained in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings.⁴

Dalilah’s parents, Marcus Coleman and Ileana Krause, visited Singh at Mesa Verde. Coleman wheeled Dalilah into the meeting and introduced himself. He said Singh appeared surprised by the visit and that “apologies were exchanged” during the encounter.³

The Habeas Corpus Case

Court records show Singh was re-detained in November 2025 after four violations of his release conditions under ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, including failed scheduled home visits.⁶

In April 2026, Judge Dena M. Coggins of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California granted a preliminary injunction in Singh v. Warden of Mesa Verde Detention Center. The order required the government to give Singh a bond hearing before an immigration judge within 14 days. At that hearing, the government had to prove by clear and convincing evidence that Singh posed a danger to the community or a flight risk to keep him detained.⁶

Dalilah’s Law and the Federal Response

The Trump administration seized on Singh’s case to argue for sweeping changes to commercial licensing rules. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said that “what happened to Dalilah Coleman is a tragedy that could have been prevented if California did not grant commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens who should have never been here in the first place.”⁵

Marcus Coleman testified before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary at a March 2026 oversight hearing on the Department of Homeland Security.⁷ He criticized what he called “insensitive” rhetoric from some lawmakers on immigration while describing Dalilah’s injuries.²

President Trump urged Congress to pass “Dalilah’s Law,” named for Dalilah Coleman, to require the revocation of commercial trucking licenses for most drivers holding temporary immigration status.⁸ Several bills have been introduced:

H.R. 7793, introduced March 4, 2026, by Rep. Erin Houchin of Indiana, would prohibit states from issuing CDLs to anyone who is not a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or holder of certain specific work visas. It requires English proficiency for applicants, mandates recertification of existing CDL holders within 180 days, and threatens to withhold federal highway funding from noncompliant states.⁹
H.R. 5688, from Rep. David Rouzer of North Carolina, requires states to verify they are not issuing CDLs to undocumented immigrants, mandates English proficiency, increases funding penalties on noncompliant states, and bans foreign dispatch services linked to freight fraud.¹⁰
The Senate companion, the Dalilah’s Law Act, introduced March 27, 2026, by Senators John Cornyn, Ted Budd, Shelley Moore Capito, Cynthia Lummis, and Tommy Tuberville, would create criminal penalties for undocumented individuals who use a CDL in interstate commerce, set mandatory minimum sentences for accidents, and establish a new death penalty aggravating factor if a covered individual kills someone in a motor vehicle accident.¹¹

The Nationwide Crackdown the Case Helped Trigger

In September 2025, ICE launched Operation Midway Blitz, a nationwide enforcement campaign focused in part on commercial truck drivers. By late October 2025, Noem reported more than 3,000 arrests nationwide, including over 220 in Indiana alone, roughly a quarter of them CDL holders. Agents targeted truck stops, highway weigh stations, and drivers on the road.¹²

The Department of Transportation shut down 550 commercial driving schools and set a rule effective February 2026 requiring all CDL tests to be given in English. An estimated 9,500 drivers were removed from the roads for failing English proficiency requirements.¹³ The administration cited 17 fatal trucking accidents in 2025 allegedly caused by non-citizen drivers as justification, though critics noted those crashes represented less than one percent of fatal crashes involving truckers that year.⁸

In September 2025 the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued an interim final rule, “Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Commercial Drivers Licenses,” halting most non-domiciled CDLs.¹⁴ On November 13, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted a full emergency stay in Rivera Lujan v. FMCSA, finding petitioners were “likely to succeed” on claims that the agency bypassed required rulemaking procedures. Many states have remained reluctant to resume issuing non-domiciled CDLs even with the stay in place, leaving roughly 200,000 drivers in credentialing limbo.¹⁵

The federal government also threatened to withhold $160 million in highway funds from California and to rescind the state’s authority to issue commercial licenses if it did not revoke CDLs held by immigrants with temporary legal status. California sued the federal Department of Transportation. In February 2026, an Alameda County Superior Court judge issued a tentative ruling allowing roughly 20,000 affected drivers to keep their licenses temporarily while the dispute continued. The AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, and Public Citizen have also sued over the new licensing rule.¹⁶

Wendy Liu of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, who leads the lawsuit against the Department of Transportation, said “there is no data to support the notion that immigrant status has anything to do with whether somebody is a safer driver.”⁸ Raman Dhillon of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association estimated that up to 200,000 drivers without legal domicile or work permits could lose their licenses over the next five years, and that combined English proficiency enforcement could push the figure toward 600,000.¹³

Singh’s own immigration case remains pending at Mesa Verde, with his bond hearing ordered under the April 2026 injunction. The policy fight his crash set in motion is still moving through Congress and the courts.

1
NDTV. Indian Man Who Arrived in US Illegally Arrested for Multi-Car Crash in California
2
Fox News. Father of Girl Injured by Illegal Migrant Truck Driver Slams Insensitive Rhetoric at Noem Hearing
3
KMPH. Bakersfield Family Meets Detained Immigrant Behind Crash That Left Daughter Brain Injured
4
Indian Express. Punjab Truck Driver Illegally Entered US, Arrested After Crash That Left Girl Disabled
5
Fox News. Noem Backs Trump’s Dalilah Law After Crash Leaves Young Girl Unable to Walk, Talk
6
PACER Monitor. Singh v. Warden of Mesa Verde Detention Center et al
7
U.S. House of Representatives. Committee on the Judiciary Hearing Documents
8
PBS NewsHour. Thousands of Immigrant Truckers Lose Commercial Licenses in Trump Administration Crackdown
9
U.S. Congress. H.R. 7793 – The Dalilah Law
10
U.S. House of Representatives. Rouzer Dalilah’s Law Press Release
11
U.S. Senate. Budd Joins Cornyn, Colleagues to Introduce the Dalilah’s Law Act
12
Spectrum News. Operation Midway Blitz: Foreign Truck Drivers Immigration Enforcement
13
The Guardian. ICE Crackdown on Immigrant Truck Drivers
14
FMCSA. Order Granting Administrative Stay of Interim Final Rule
15
FreightWaves. Inside the Legal Battle That Could Reshape Commercial Licensing
16
CalMatters. Truck Drivers California