Foreign nationals unlawfully issued a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) in states run by open border officials killed more than 30 Americans in 17 fatal crashes last year alone, a disturbing new investigation reveals. Among the victims of the senseless highway carnage is a 5-year-old girl in California, who was critically injured and left with lifelong disabilities after an illegal immigrant crashed an 18-wheeler into her family’s vehicle. The Golden State leads the pack of offenders, issuing over 128,000 non-domiciled CDLs between 2022 and 2025 and allowing applicants to be tested in Arabic, Chinese, Punjabi, Russian and Spanish with pass rates as low as 22% for Arabic speakers and 26% for Punjabi speakers compared with 63% for English.
Leftist politicians and bureaucrats in states like California have systematically undermined federal CDL standards, a critical public safety tool, to license foreign nationals who frequently lack English proficiency and valid immigration status to operate 80,000-pound big rigs on highways throughout the U.S. The consequences have been deadly, according to a probe conducted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a Washington D.C. nonprofit dedicated to studying immigration issues. The group used targeted research, public records requests and litigation as well as analysis of state Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) data to conduct its investigation. The alarming findings are available in a recently published report, appropriately titled “License to Kill: Uncovering the Anti-Borders Takeover of the National CDL Program.” Uniform CDL standards have been deliberately eroded producing a cascade of preventable tragedies on American highways, the FAIR probe found. “State agencies charged with implementing minimum safety rules have instead chosen to ignore, dilute, or outright nullify them,” the report states.
It all started years ago thanks to a dangerous Obama-era policy dismissing longstanding Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) English-language proficiency standards that placed noncompliant drivers out of service. Last year the Trump administration reversed Obama’s egregious policy, essentially restoring the original federal rules forcing truck drivers to comply with established FMCSA English-language proficiency (ELP) requirements or be placed out-of-service. Adding to the problem is the fact that many Mexican truck drivers who consistently deliver loads north of the border do not speak English and cannot read American highway signs, endangering public safety across the country. Nearly 6 million trucks crossed from Mexico into the U.S. last year, according to government figures, and though federal regulations require drivers to sufficiently read and speak English and understand highway traffic signs the Obama administration relaxed those rules in 2016 and directed inspectors not to penalize Mexican drivers. “Americans are a lot safer on roads alongside truckers who can understand and interpret our traffic signs,” Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said when he reinstated federal safety rules waived years ago.
FAIR’s probe offers a slew of cases nationwide that clearly illustrate the detriments of failing to enforce commercial trucker laws. Examples include the illegal immigrant from India who critically injured the 5-year-old girl in California after slamming his 18-wheeler into multiple vehicles. He had a CDL from California despite his unlawful status in the country. A Kyrgyzstani national who killed four people after slamming his big rig head-on into a passenger van on State Route 67 in Indiana got his CDL in Pennsylvania after entering the U.S. via Biden’s disastrous CBP One app. A Chinese illegal alien who caused a deadly multi-vehicle pile-up on a Tennessee highway obtained a CDL from New York even though he rear-ended a tractor-trailer while distracted by a video on his phone as a tour bus operator. A criminal illegal immigrant from India with a California-issued CDL made a prohibited U-turn on Florida’s Turnpike blocking all northbound lanes with his semi-truck causing a minivan traveling behind him to slam into the trailer killing three people. The list goes on and on. “The common threads in these cases are unmistakable,” FAIR writes. “In nearly every situation, the driver held a non-domiciled or improperly issued CDL from a non-compliant state. English proficiency requirements were routinely bypassed or ignored. Prior violations were overlooked.”
