ICE Lodges Detainer for Illegal Alien Charged in Fatal Semi-Truck Crash in Ohio

The suspect had been released into the country by the Biden Administration and granted a commercial driver's license by the state of California

WASHINGTON - The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the following statement after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer for an illegal alien who has been charged with causing a semi-truck crash that killed a woman in Ohio.

According to local reporting, the crash took place on September 2 in Brown County. A semi-truck attempted to pass another vehicle by moving into the opposite lane, colliding head-on with a car being driven by 50-year-old Brenda Watson. Watson died at the scene. A witness to the crash said that the semi-truck was speeding and had plenty of time and space to merge back into the correct lane.

The aftermath of the crash that killed Brenda Watson

The driver of the semi-truck, Manjit Singh, an illegal alien from India, was arrested and charged with aggravated vehicular homicide. ICE lodged a detainer with Brown County Jail the day after Singh was arrested.

The suspect: Manjit Singh

Singh had been granted a commercial driver's license (CDL) by the state of California.

"This illegal alien from India has been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide after allegedly causing a semi-truck crash that killed 50-year-old Brenda Watson in Ohio," said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. "He has no business being in our country or on our roads, but because of the reckless open borders of the Biden Administration and the sanctuary policies of Gavin Newsom's California, he was able to obtain a CDL that allowed him behind the wheel of a semi-truck. ICE has lodged a detainer asking officials in Ohio to commit to not releasing this killer back onto our streets, so that ICE can remove him from our country. My thoughts and prayers are with Brenda Watson's family."

Singh illegally entered the United States through Arizona in October 2023 and was encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol. He was then RELEASED into the country by the Biden Administration. In July 2024, he applied for work authorization, which was granted by the Biden Administration in August 2024.

Governor Newsom's sanctuary policies have had disastrous consequences in other states as well. These include:

• In January, ICE lodged detainers for Gunpreet Singh and Jasveer Singh, criminal illegal aliens from India, after they had been arrested for smuggling more than 300 pounds of cocaine in a semi-truck in Putnam County, Indiana. Governor Newsom's DMV had given both men CDLs.
• In December 2025, ICE arrested Gerson Emir Cuadra Soto, an illegal alien from Honduras and MS-13 member who is wanted in his home country for a quadruple homicide, in Grand Island, Nebraska. He had been given a driver's license by Newsom's DMV.
• In November 2025, Rajinder Kumar, an illegal alien from India who had been given a CDL by Newsom's DMV, jackknifed his semi-truck and trailer on a highway in Deschutes County, Oregon, killing a newlywed couple. ICE arrested Kumar in April 2026.
• In August 2025, ICE lodged a detainer for Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India, after he made an illegal U-turn in his semi-truck and killed three people in St. Lucie County, Florida. Singh had obtained his CDL in Newsom's California.

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