GOP Lawmakers To Permanently Lock In Trump’s Crackdown On Illegal Migrant Truckers

Republican lawmakers are pushing for permanent fixes to address the startling number of illegal migrant truckers wreaking havoc on American highways.

In response to a growing number of fatal accidents caused by illegal migrant truck drivers, the Trump administration has mandated tougher English standards on commercial drivers and demanded state officials tighten their handling of Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs). While similar reforms have been rolled back in Democratic administrations, lawmakers in Congress are touting bills that would keep these changes locked in place long after President Donald Trump leaves office. (RELATED: California’s Non-Compliance Led To Fatal Crash Involving Illegal Migrant Trucker, DOT Says)

“Allowing illegal aliens to operate commercial trucks on our roads is reckless, dangerous, and unacceptable,” Illinois GOP Rep. Mary Miller, who introduced the Stop Aliens From Evading Driving Laws (SAFE) Act in September, said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

If signed into law, the bill would withhold federal transportation funds from states that issue licenses to illegal migrants, hold states more accountable for the CDLs issued within their borders and direct federal officials to maintain a public compliance database that tracks every state, among other provisions.

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 06: Rep.-elect Mary Miller (R-IL) (C) receives applause from her fellow Republicans after switching her vote for Speaker of the House to Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) during the fourth day of elections at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“My SAFE Driving Laws Act will enforce accountability by cutting off federal transportation funds to any state that hands out CDLs or standard driver’s licenses to illegal aliens or fails to share immigration enforcement data with federal authorities,” Miller said to the DCNF.

Miller’s legislation closely reflects emergency rules established by the Department of Transportation (DOT) handed down that same month.

DOT Secretary Sean Duffy in September declared that non-citizens would not be eligible for a non-domiciled CDL — the type of license typically obtained by illegal migrant truckers — unless they meet much stricter standards, such as possessing an employment-based visa and undergoing a mandatory immigration status check.

The new rules also prevent all asylum seekers from obtaining non-domiciled CDLs and require states to apply these standards to all issuances, renewals, transfers and upgrades of them.

Harjinder Singh, an Indian national living unlawfully in the U.S., allegedly took an unlawful U-turn on a Florida turnpike in August, blocking all lanes and instantly killing three people in a car that smashed into his tractor-trailer. On Tuesday, Jashanpreet Singh, another Indian illegal migrant, allegedly plowed into multiple vehicles off a California highway while under the influence of drugs, killing three people in the process.

Harjinder demonstrably failed English and road sign tests administered by federal investigators after the deadly Florida crash. In California, state officials ignored the emergency rules and upgraded Jashanpreet’s CDL license just days before his deadly crash, an investigation by the DOT discovered.

The president issued an executive order in April reinstating stricter English language proficiency requirements for truckers. The following month, Duffy signed a DOT order that established new guidelines for English language enforcement for commercial truck operators, declaring that drivers who fail to comply with the rules would be booted from service.

The English proficiency directives established by the Trump administration were a reinstatement of long-standing rules that had been in place for years, but the Obama administration had paused those rules in 2016, weakening enforcement against commercial truckers who lacked basic English skills. Legislative changes would prevent a future administration from pausing the rules again.

TOPSHOT – US President Donald Trump sits in the drivers seat of a semi-truck as he welcomes truckers and CEOs to the White House in Washington, DC, March 23, 2017, to discuss healthcare. (Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Wyoming GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis introduced Connor’s Law earlier in October, which would implement Trump’s executive order requiring CDL holders to demonstrate satisfactory English skills and remove truckers who don’t meet these standards off the roads. Ohio GOP Rep. Dave Taylor is pushing a House version of this bill in the lower chamber of Congress.

Other lawmakers are following suit. On the day of the fatal crash in Southern California, North Carolina GOP Rep. Pat Harrigan introduced his own legislation that would establish a nationwide uniform English proficiency test for all CDL holders and enable the DOT to withhold funds from states that don’t comply.

“The trucking industry has been going through a replacement cycle for the last five years as the previous administration unleashed an unprecedented wave of illegal immigration into our industry,” Shannon Everett, a spokesperson for American Truckers United, said to the DCNF. “We witnessed good American trucking companies being replaced by a Black Market of truckload capacity propped up with illegal immigrants that were issued Non-Domicile CDLs for the first time in the history of the industry.”

“This artificial supply of truck driver capacity increased crashes, suppressed wages, crashed linehaul rates, risked National Security, and bankrupted many American trucking companies,” Everett continued. “This administration’s efforts will hopefully reset the industry to the way it always was before the GREAT BLACK MARKET REPLACEMENT began.”

American Truckers United differentiates itself from other advocacy groups in the industry in that it focuses on the priorities of the American truck driver community, according to the group. While advocating for stricter English and CDL standards, the organization also supports legislation that cracks down on cabotage and B-1 visa violations.

Other legislation lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are pushing focuses on increasing the standard of living for everyday truckers. Bills like New Jersey GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s Guaranteeing Overtime (GOT) for Truckers Act enables truckers to make more money on the job, allowing trucking companies to attract and retain better talent, in lieu of resorting to cheap, foreign labor.

“Truckers are the backbone of our nation’s economy,” Van Drew stated to the DCNF. “Without them, America stops moving.”

The GOT Truckers Act would remove the motor carrier overtime exemption within the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and require truckers receive overtime compensation for the hours they worked beyond the standard 40-hour work week. The bill not only touts bipartisan support in the House, but also boasts a companion bill in the upper chamber of Congress by California Democrat Sen. Alex Padilla.

“Our truckers are away from their families for days or weeks at a time,” Van Drew explained. “This bill will make a difference for the trucking industry by making sure our drivers are fairly compensated for these long hours they are already putting in. It will help attract more people to the profession, strengthen our supply chain, and bring respect back to an industry that keeps this country running.”

“That is something everyone should be able to agree on,” the New Jersey Republican said.

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