Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday he will withhold $40 million from California because it is the only state that is failing to enforce English language requirements for truckers.
An investigation launched after a deadly Florida crash involving a foreign truck driver who made an illegal U-turn on Aug. 12 found what Duffy called significant failures in the way California is enforcing rules that took effect in June after one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders. California had issued the driver a commercial license, but these English rules predate the crash.
Truckers are supposed to be disqualified if they can’t demonstrate English proficiency, and Duffy said the driver involved in the crash should not have been given a commercial license because of his immigration status. The crash has become increasingly political, with the governors of California and Florida criticizing each other and Duffy highlighting the administration’s immigration concerns in interviews.
“California is the only state in the nation that refuses to ensure big rig drivers can read our road signs and communicate with law enforcement. This is a fundamental safety issue that impacts you and your family on America’s road,” Duffy said.
California defended its practices in a formal response to the Transportation Department last month, but federal officials weren't satisfied.
The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly pushed back after the announcement Wednesday. Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for the governor, said statistics show that California commercial truck drivers have a lower crash rate than the national average.
But Duffy said when he announced his concerns in August that California had conducted roughly 34,000 inspections that found at least one violation since the new language standards took effect. But only one inspection involved an English language rules violation that resulted in a driver being taken out of service. And 23 drivers with violations in other states were allowed to continue driving after inspections in California.
The Transportation Department said that to get this funding reinstated, California must adopt regulations to enforce the English rules and ensure that state inspectors are testing truck drivers' English skills during roadside inspections and pulling anyone that fails out of service.
In addition to this English language issue, Duffy has threatened to pull another $160 million from California because of the way the state issues commercial drivers licenses. Duffy significantly restricted who can qualify for those licenses last month.
Three people died when truck driver Harjinder Singh made an illegal U-turn on a highway about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of West Palm Beach and a minivan slammed into his trailer, according to Florida’s Highway Patrol. Singh and his passenger were not injured.
He is being held without bond after being charged with three state counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations. His lawyer has previously declined to comment on the case.
The crash received intense scrutiny because of questions about Singh's immigration status and because investigators said he failed an English proficiency test afterward. Duffy and Florida officials blamed California as well as Washington state for issuing him a commercial driver's license.
But California officials said he had a valid work permit at the time. And New Mexico released video of a traffic stop that showed Singh communicating with an officer effectively after he was pulled over there in July.
Duffy, President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have all be trading barbs with Newsom over the crash and whether Singh should have been driving a truck.
Newsom’s office said California followed all the rules when it issued a license for Singh in July 2024, while the federal government confirmed at that time that he was in the country legally.
Duffy and Florida authorities have said Singh, who is from India, entered the country illegally from Mexico in 2018.
FILE - Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a news conference Aug. 5, 2025, at the Department of Transportation in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A special tribunal sentenced Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death on charges of crimes against humanity for her crackdown on a student uprising last year that killed hundreds of people and led to the toppling of her 15-year rule.
The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal also sentenced former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan to death for his involvement in the use of deadly force against protesters.
Both Hasina and Khan fled to India last year and were sentenced in absentia.
A third suspect, a former police chief, was sentenced to five years in prison after becoming a state witness against Hasina and pleading guilty.
Hasina and Khan were accused over the killing of hundreds of people during a student-led uprising in July and August of 2024. The country’s health adviser under the country’s current interim government said more than 800 people were killed and about 14,000 were injured. However, the United Nations in a February report said up to 1,400 may have been killed.
Hasina says the charges are unjustified, arguing that she and Khan “acted in good faith and were trying to minimize the loss of life.”
“We lost control of the situation, but to characterize what happened as a premeditated assault on citizens is simply to misread the facts,” she said Monday in a statement denouncing the verdict. She denounced the ruling, calling it “biased and politically motivated."
“I mourn all of the deaths that occurred in July and August of last year, on both sides of the political divide," she said. "But neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters.”
The verdict comes as the country still grapples with instability after Hasina was ousted on Aug. 5, 2024. Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of an interim government three days after her fall. Yunus has vowed to punish Hasina and banned the activities of her Awami League party.
A three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, announced the tribunal's ruling, a session that was broadcast live.
Some of those in the packed courtroom cheered when Mazumder announced the death penalty for Hasina. He admonished them, telling them to express their feelings outside the courtroom.
Many families of the killed and the injured during last year's uprising waited for hours outside the tribunal ahead of the verdict.
It appeared unlikely that Hasina would return to Bangladesh to face her sentence. India had not responded to requests by Bangladesh to extradite her to face the trial.
The interim government beefed up security ahead of the verdict, with paramilitary border guards and police deployed in Dhaka and many other parts of the country.
Hasina’s Awami League party called for a nationwide shutdown to protest the verdict on Monday.
Hasina cannot appeal the verdict unless she surrenders or is arrested within 30 days of the judgment.
A few kilometers away from the tribunal, Hasina’s opponents on Monday gathered outside her father’s home-turned-museum to demolish the rest of the establishment, which was looted and damaged earlier. They brought two excavators to demolish the building.
Police charged with batons and used stun grenades to disperse the crowd as the judges continued to read out the verdict, a process that took hours.
In the evening more than 300 people were still there and burned tires on streets as the security officials took their position.
Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed, currently in the United States, said in message to The Associated Press that the “verdict is a joke and meaningless. My mother is safe in India. The trials were so legally flawed they won’t survive any challenge once rule of law returns to Bangladesh.”
Tensions and disruptions had grown in the country in recent days ahead of the verdict.
Nearly 50 arson attacks, mostly targeting vehicles, and dozens of crude bombs explosions were reported nationwide over the past week. Two people were killed in the arson attacks, local media reported.
Authorities at the Supreme Court, in a letter to army headquarters on Sunday, requested the deployment of soldiers around the tribunal premises ahead of the verdict.
Yunus said his interim government would hold the country's next elections in February, and that Hasina’s party would not get a chance to contest the race.
Bangladesh's politics under Yunus has remained at a crossroads with limited signs of stability.
Protesters shout slogans outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's former leader and the father of the country's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of an expected verdict against Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahadul Karim Khan)
Protesters throw stones and shout slogans during a standoff with police outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's former leader and the father of the country's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after the verdict against Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/ Rajib Dhar)
Police use baton to disperse protesters gather outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's former leader and the father of the country's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of an expected verdict against Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/ Ahadul Karim Khan)
Protesters shout slogans outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's former leader and the father of the country's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of an expected verdict against Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/ Ahadul Karim Khan)
A police man checks the bag of a commuter near International Crimes Tribunal after security has been beefed up across the country ahead of an expected verdict against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)
Policemen stand guard outside International Crimes Tribunal after security has been beefed up across the country ahead of an expected verdict against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)
Bangladeshi Army soldiers stand guard outside the Supreme Court after security have been beefed up across the country ahead of an expected verdict against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)
Security personnel walk past a bus stop as ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her former ruling Awami League party called for a nationwide "lockdown" in protest against her trial, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
Security personnel stand guard at a traffic intersection as ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her former ruling Awami League party called for a nationwide "lockdown" in protest against her trial, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
FILE- Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks during a press conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Jan. 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)
Security personnel stand guard at Bangladesh's Supreme Court as ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her former ruling Awami League party called for a nationwide "lockdown" in protest against her trial in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
