Truckers across the U.S. are raising alarms over reports that illegal immigrants are being granted commercial driver’s licenses, arguing that relaxed licensing standards amid a national driver shortage are putting road safety at risk.
“Our American truck driver community has been complaining about the foreign invasion of their industry and the challenges they face daily,” said Harvey Beech, co-founder of American Truckers United, during an appearance on Fox & Friends on Friday.
Both Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have criticized sanctuary states for allegedly permitting undocumented immigrants to obtain commercial driver’s licenses. Their comments follow several high-profile accidents involving truck drivers in the U.S. illegally.
On Thursday, Noem announced that more than 200 undocumented immigrants had been removed from the road during “Operation Midway Blitz.” Among them were 46 semi-truck drivers and 82 individuals operating other commercial vehicles, such as buses, box trucks, and moving vans.
According to Noem, the commercial licenses were issued across more than a dozen states.
“This has really exploded over the last five years,” said Shannon Everett, another co-founder of American Truckers United. “There’s been an industry-wide effort to reduce standards to address a so-called driver shortage. In doing so, they’ve lowered the bar for issuing these licenses, but only in certain states.”
Both Noem and Duffy have pointed to states such as California, accusing Governor Gavin Newsom of enabling undocumented immigrants to obtain commercial licenses. Duffy said federal officials are now targeting “CDL mills” — operations accused of distributing licenses without proper oversight.
Everett called for greater accountability among trucking companies hiring unqualified drivers, many of which, he claimed, are based in sanctuary states such as Illinois, New York, and California.
“Americans would be shocked to learn how many new trucking companies are started every month — and who owns them,” Everett said. “The real question we should be asking after every one of these wrecks is whose freight was on that truck, and why the shippers aren’t being held responsible for hiring drivers who can’t even speak English.”
Concerns about licensing standards have intensified after a deadly crash on October 21 along a Southern California freeway. Authorities say 21-year-old Indian national Jashanpreet Singh was driving a semi-truck under the influence when he caused a multi-car pileup that killed three people.
During a news conference in Washington, D.C., Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that the federal government may cut funding to states accused of failing to comply with trucking safety regulations.
Newsom’s office responded by defending California’s licensing policies, blaming federal enforcement gaps and maintaining that the state’s commercial driver’s license program meets all federal requirements.
“Lost in the immigrant-bashing is the fact that drivers with California-issued CDLs are involved in fatal crashes at a rate far below the national average,” a spokesperson for Newsom told Fox News Digital. “If the focus is truly on safety, California should be a model — not a scapegoat.”
