The illegal immigrant who killed a child while driving his BMW drunk and was released from prison after just three years has been arrested in recent months for two separate DUIs in different counties, and released on bail each time, according to records obtained by The Daily Wire.
In August 2020, Karmit Singh — an Indian national and illegal immigrant — was sentenced to six years in prison for vehicular manslaughter for killing an eight-year-old boy in Fresno, California while speeding 100 miles per hour in his brother’s BMW after having consumed alcohol. Singh already had a previous DUI. Yet he did not serve even the six years: He was released in January 2022, only about sixteen months after his sentencing, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told The Daily Wire.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was aware that he was an illegal immigrant who killed someone, but did not deport him upon his release from state prison. Police records show that in the period after his release, he was caught drunk driving multiple times, but released back into the country on bail in all occasions.
The finding comes as 150 Democrats in the U.S. Congress voted on Thursday against a law that would require illegal immigrants to be deported for drunk driving. Seven illegal immigrants in New York City were also released with no bail after assaulting a police officer — with one making a vulgar gesture of defiance as he was released. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who voted against the bill, said that passing the bill “would mean that our immigrant neighbors who came here lawfully and who have resided in our communities for decades could be deported and ripped from their families due to one misdemeanor DUI conviction, creating a separate and unequal system of justice.”
In the case of Singh, he was released back into the country in 2022 even after killing a young boy.
Less than 18 months after his release, on June 1, 2023, Singh was driving erratically at 2:00 am and arrested for DUI, according to a police report from the Vasalia Police Department obtained by The Daily Wire. He gave police his brother Parminder’s drivers license, but after being taken to the police station and having his blood drawn — showing that he was well over the legal limit — he admitted his true identity.
The officer determined that he had a suspended license from the manslaughter, and charged him with DUI and giving a false identity. But instead of holding him, the police called his brother to pick him up. The Tulare County District’s Attorney did not proceed with charges until nearly five months later, on October 17, 2023, when an arrest warrant was issued with bail set at $70,000, court records show.
But Singh didn’t show up for his court date on December 12 because, by then, he had also been arrested for yet another DUI in neighboring Fresno County. Singh was arrested on November 12 in that county for again driving drunk and pretending to he his brother, and was released despite the fact that he by then had three DUIs plus a manslaughter conviction, all on top of violating the nation’s immigration laws.
The Daily Wire reported last month on the Fresno arrest after the manslaughter conviction, but the Tulare County arrest was previously unknown.
After Fresno released him on bail, he remained out from November 13 to December 4, when the judge ordered him held in the Fresno County Jail. Taxpayers bore the cost for a public defender and Punjabi translator, the records show.
Jail records show that Singh currently has an “INS detainer” on him, an indication that he is on the radar of federal immigration authorities. But California law prevents sheriffs from notifying law enforcement about where illegal immigrants are and when they will be picked up.
The Visalia Police Department did not respond to a Daily Wire inquiry about why Singh was immediately released to his brother after the June arrest. Asked about the delay in charges, Tulare County Assistant District Attorney Kirk Davis said, “As he was out of custody, our office had time under the statute of limitations to review the case and file charges.” Davis said an “inquiry to Homeland Security is necessary for the immigration status and why they did or did not act on any holds when he was in custody of the Sheriff.”
ICE did not seem to want the American people to know about the deadly illegal, and would not say that it intends to deport him. “We will not be releasing any information on this individual at this time,” ICE spokeswoman Denise Hauser told The Daily Wire.
There are dozens of traffic infractions listed under the name Parminder Singh, and some of those could also have been Karmjit Singh using his brother’s identification, highlighting the challenge posed to enforcing order at the hands of people who by definition are undocumented and hard to track.
Scott Martzen, the father of Maverick Martzen, the star baseball player who Singh killed, said his boy would be alive today if Singh had been deported after his first DUI. He told The Daily Wire that authorities did not notify him that his boy’s killer had been released from prison already and was endangering more Americans on the road.
“Our family has been beyond devastated since being made aware that Mr. Singh has not only been arrested once again, but twice, for the same crime that resulted in the death of our son and lifelong injuries for my wife and I,” Martzen said.
“We hoped that he would truly change his behavior. We also had hoped, that once he was released from prison, that he would be deported back to his country. To our disappointment neither things have happened. His additional DUIs have felt like salt being added to our wounds,” he continued.
“We pray we can find lawmakers who want to join us in our quest to make harsher laws that will give future victims the justice they deserve. My wife and I will continue to honor Maverick in our daily life and do our best to speak out against soft punishment so others don’t have to experience our same devastation,” he added.
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on only a single bill, the Protect Our Communities From DUIs Act, introduced by Rep. Barry Moore (R-Alabama). The bill would “amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide that aliens who have been convicted of or who have committed an offense for driving while intoxicated or impaired are inadmissible and deportable.”
150 Democrats voted against it, with only 59 Democrats voting in favor. Every Republican voted for it, leading to its passage in the Republican-controlled lower chamber. It is unclear whether it has the support to pass in the U.S. Senate and head to President Joe Biden.
