US Lawmakers Clash Over Immigrant Truck Drivers and Highway Safety

The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability convened the hearing on Wednesday to examine what Chairman Rep. Josh Brecheen described as "the issuance of non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses to illegal aliens unlawfully present in the United States."

Brecheen said commercial truck drivers are vital to the American economy and transport essential goods across the country every day.

"Commercial truck drivers are the backbone of the American economy," he said. "Every day they transport food, fuel, medicine, and other critical supplies all across the United States."

But he argued that federal audits have exposed failures by some states to properly enforce licensing standards.

"Recent Department of Transportation audits have revealed alarming failures by many states to comply with these requirements," Brecheen said.

He cited federal findings showing that in Illinois, "One in 5 non-domiciled CDLs failed to meet federal standards." He also said the Department of Transportation found California had "illegally issued 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs," while a 2025 audit concluded that "over 50 per cent of the non-domiciled CDLs issued by the State of New York were in Violation of federal law".

Republican lawmakers repeatedly warned that heavy commercial vehicles can pose serious risks if driven by unqualified operators.

"You do not have to be a scholar to understand what a bad actor could do with a 40-ton tractor-trailer," Brecheen said. "That vehicle is not just a truck, it's a weapon capable of threatening public safety and national security."

Law enforcement officials appearing before the panel described enforcement actions that uncovered drivers operating commercial vehicles while violating immigration rules.

Tim Tipton, commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, said joint operations between state troopers and federal immigration authorities had resulted in hundreds of arrests.

He said inspections had revealed broader concerns about licensing oversight.

"Many of these drivers struggle with even basic English language proficiency and likely received their licenses from an unscrupulous CDL mill," Tipton told lawmakers.

Sheriff Richard Del Toro of Saint Lucie County, Florida, described a fatal crash in his jurisdiction involving a commercial truck.

"Three innocent people in my county lost their lives in a catastrophic crash on the Florida Turnpike involving a commercial motor vehicle," Del Toro said. "For the families of those victims, this is not a policy debate; it's a permanent loss."

Democrats on the panel rejected claims that immigrants holding commercial licences pose a safety threat and warned that restrictions could worsen a shortage of drivers in the trucking industry.

Indian American Congressman Shri Thanedar, the ranking member, said immigrants make up a significant share of the workforce.

"Nearly 20 per cent of truck drivers in the US are immigrants," he said.

Wendy Liu, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group, testified that banning immigrants with legal work authorisation from holding commercial driver's licences would not improve road safety.

"Barring people with lawful work authorisation who have obtained their commercial driver's licenses by completing the required training and passing the required tests will not make our roads safer," Liu said.

She warned that the policy could remove thousands of experienced drivers from the industry.

"The Trump administration's exclusion of documented immigrants from the truck driver workforce would force 2,00,000 experienced drivers out of the market," Liu said.

"That will disrupt supply chains, delay the delivery of goods and materials and increase rates for freight operations."

Lawmakers also referred to a fatal highway crash involving a truck driver who had previously entered the United States illegally and later obtained a commercial licence in another state, a case cited by Republicans as an example of regulatory gaps.

- IANS