Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued an interim final rule late last month, halting the issuance of new commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to illegal aliens and barring the renewal of existing licenses. “Licenses to operate a massive, 80,000-pound truck are being issued to dangerous foreign drivers – often times illegally,” Duffy stated. DOT specifically named six states that are endangering the public by granting CDLs to illegal aliens when he announced the rule: California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Washington. At least two other states, New York and Oregon, also appear to have been issuing CDLs to illegal aliens.
The DOT rule was no doubt triggered by a high-profile crash on a Florida highway in August in which three motorists lost their lives when Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India with a CDL issued by California, attempted to make an illegal U-turn. That crash was one of five such fatal accidents involving foreign CDL holders since January. It was later revealed that Singh failed his English proficiency exam, provided the correct answers to just two of 12 questions on his oral exam and correctly identified only one of four road signs.
The deadly Florida crash also exposed the fact that, although illegal aliens are not eligible for CDLs, they are getting them anyway – in large numbers. As one immigration law firm notes, “There is one particular exception” to the prohibition of granting CDLs to illegal aliens. It’s an exception so big that you could drive a Mack truck through it. The exception is known as the non-domiciled CDL. This avenue...allow[s] workers to drive with a CDL and be employed even though they are undocumented immigrants.”
All these non-domiciled workers needed to qualify for CDLs was a federal Employment Authorization Document (EAD) – an obstacle that was reduced to a mere speed bump during the Biden administration. Singh was just one of millions of illegal aliens who was paroled into the United States and granted permission to work here during those four years.
Even more shocking is how quickly an illegal alien who secures an EAD can be behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle. According to the Truck Driver Institute, which has 11 training centers around the country, “CDL training…only takes 3 weeks to complete. After those 3 weeks, you can be on the road with a new career.” The website goes on to inform illegal aliens, “You may be excited to learn how can [sic] a non-us citizen get a CDL but are worried about cost. Fear not because when you get your CDL with TDI you can get started with as little as 225 dollars out of pocket.” Those of us who share the road with these newly minted CDL holders may be somewhat less excited.
The risk to public safety associated with illegal aliens operating big rigs on American highways goes beyond the fact that many of them are unqualified to be driving them. A joint operation between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol last month exposed a host of other dangers posed by illegal aliens with CDLs.
In just three days in September along the 331 miles of Interstate 40 running through Oklahoma, the joint federal-state operation resulted in the arrest of 120 illegal aliens, 91 of whom were operating trucks and other commercial vehicles with CDLs. Among those arrested were illegal aliens with past DUI convictions and criminal offenses that included illegal re-entry to the United States, money laundering, assault, human smuggling and narcotics distribution. According to Oklahoma’s Department of Public Safety Commissioner Tim Tipton, “The vast majority of those people had crossed the border illegally between 2021 and 2024.”
The Oklahoma operation provides only a hint of the danger to public safety and criminality that is occurring 365 days a year on the nation’s 46,876 miles of Interstate highway, as well as state highways and roads as a result of the widespread issuance of CDLs to illegal aliens.
In the wake of the deadly Florida crash and the results of the enforcement action taken in Oklahoma, the federal government must impose significant penalties, including loss of highway funds, against states that do not act immediately to revoke CDLs that have been issued to non-domiciled individuals. Additionally, DOT must bar trucking companies that employ non-domiciled drivers from operating vehicles on federal roadways.
An 80,000-pound big rig in the hands of a poorly trained driver who cannot understand road signs is nothing short of a weapon of mass destruction. Neither the vehicle nor the driver must be allowed to remain on our roads.
Ira Mehlman is the media director for the Federation for America Immigration Reform (FAIR).