what-florida-turnpike-crash-really-tells-us-about-white-racism

On the fatal afternoon of August 12, a man driving an 18-wheeler attempted an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike. What would have been a disregard of road safety signs and negligent driving snowballed into an unfortunate incident resulting in the loss of three lives. What should have been a case of an undocumented driver behind the wheels prompted a politically charged conversation on systemic loopholes, illegal immigrants, and the trucking industry.

 

“This accident happened because of Joe Biden’s failed border policies and immigration policies,” Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said at a press conference a couple of days after the incident. Apart from sparking off a to-and-fro blame game among the states of California and Florida, the incident has also brought to the surface the latent racism among right-wing Americans towards developing nations.

 

Hate, racism & right-wing

 

As the incident gained traction on social media across platforms, very few condemned the authorities responsible for putting Harjinder Singh, an undocumented driver incapable of reading road signs and understanding the language, behind an 18-wheeler. A large number of the populace went on to blame his community, his nation, and his background. Twenty-eight-year-old Harjinder Singh, reportedly, held a commercial driver’s license despite being in the country illegally. “Import the third world and become the third world,” read a comment with hundreds of likes on a post running down Harjinder’s nationality. “In their country, they only care for cows, not human life.” The hate comments and divisive opinions escalated in numbers, intensity, and even importance. A week after the incident, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the US will pause issuing work visas to foreign truck drivers, warning that “they are endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.” Those reading between the lines allege that it is not just about road safety, but also about politics.

 

Policy shifts on the way

 

But who’ll pay the price? Apart from the victims and their families, the incident has prompted state officials to tighten enforcement against all immigrant drivers, not just undocumented drivers. As the political fallout over immigration further intensifies, major policy shifts are on the way.

Notably, Florida lawmakers passed legislation in 2023 banning undocumented immigrants from obtaining licenses as part of the crackdown on immigration. However, now the Florida state leaders are using the incident to further expand enforcement. The state already has agricultural inspection stations in place, which traditionally screen for pesticides and contraband, but now they’ll also screen for undocumented drivers.

 

In objectionable language, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Simpson also added, “Agriculture law isn’t just looking for agricultural bugs, but we’re also looking for drugs and thugs.” In a historically unprecedented move, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins took the step of chartering a flight to leverage Singh’s extradition from California, where Singh had fled after the accident. Collins, as part of the spectacle surrounding Singh’s extradition, called him “uncaring and one who showed no remorse and not conversational” in media interviews. “We’re going to throw the book at him,” added Collins. “So he’s going to do some time. And when he’s done with that, then he’ll get deported back to wherever he came from.” When Singh appeared before Judge Lauren Sweet, he was denied bail, with the judge saying that “he was an unauthorised alien and a substantial flight risk.”

 

Indians — an integral part of USA’s trucking industry

 

As the US mainstream media runs news pieces on ‘How a migrant truck driver got a commercial driver’s license?’ many of those consuming the right-wing media blame Indians as a whole for the tragedy, unaware of the contributions of Punjabi drivers to the US trucking industry.

 

Back in India, parliamentarian Harsimrat Kaur Badal has urged the Government of India to ensure that Singh is not prosecuted as a murderer. While expressing deep regret for the lives lost, she emphasised the crash was a tragic mistake, a negligence, but not an intentional murder.

 

Taking to her social media post, she highlighted the contributions of Punjabi Indians in the US trucking industry. “More than 1.5 lakh Punjabi truck drivers in the US should not be discriminated against due to Harjinder’s mistake, and their livelihood should not be snatched from them by denying them work visas and making it more difficult for them to drive trucks by bringing in new language proficiency rules.”

 

 Democratic Representative Anna Eskamani of Orlando called the incident for what it is — unfortunate — before criticising the state’s response and the crash being used to stigmatise immigrants. “Unfortunately, this tragedy is being weaponised to vilify immigrants as a whole. Communities like the Sikh community, who have long experienced elevated levels of hate crimes, are too often scapegoated in moments like this.”

 

A strict crackdown on undocumented drivers or illegal immigrants, reinforcement of road safety rules, and enforcement of federal English proficiency tests would be a welcome consequence of the incident. Reinforcement of prejudice against human resources and legal migrants would be an unfortunate fallout.