WASHINGTON — A controversial listening to on the Trump administration’s crackdown on overseas truck drivers was used to push for extra coordination between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and native police to detain and deport unlawful truckers.
Testifying in help of the Trump administration’s restrictions on non-domiciled truck drivers, Tim Tipton, Commissioner of Oklahoma’s Division of Public Security, defined to the Home Homeland Safety Committee’s oversight subcommittee how credentialing state and native officers via ICE in 2025 to implement immigration legal guidelines has resulted within the state’s freeway patrol taking on 450 business drivers into custody for immigration violations.
“Many of those drivers wrestle with even primary English language proficiency and sure acquired their licenses from unscrupulous CDL mills,” Tipton testified.
Requested by committee chairman Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., the way it might be replicated in different states – notably “purple” states – Tipton stated it might be performed comparatively rapidly.
“I believe Oklahoma’s the mannequin instance for when state and native legislation enforcement work with ICE, there’s not chaos and uproar,” he stated.
“Oklahoma in 2025 ranked within the prime three [states] for unlawful felony aliens faraway from the nation. You don’t see all of the chaos, and it’s as a consequence of cooperation. So for the protection of the motoring public on the CMV [commercial motor vehicle] challenge … cooperation with ICE is important and might be performed in a peaceful, reliable authorized means.”
Missing information
Justification for holding the listening to in any respect was questioned from the beginning. The subcommittee’s rating member, Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., asserted that the committee had no jurisdiction over transportation security.
“I would like it on report that this listening to is de facto about nothing greater than scapegoating immigrants for the President’s financial system, which is working off the street,” Thanedar stated earlier than the witnesses had been launched.
Thanedar delivered to the panel Wendy Liu, an lawyer for Public Citizen Litigation Group, as a witness to assist make his case.
“The CDL licensing requirements are similar for U.S. residents, lawful everlasting residents, and documented immigrants alike no matter citizenship or immigration standing – all drivers should show English language proficiency, 30 completely different automobile inspection management and driving abilities, and show their data in 20 completely different areas,” Liu stated.
Liu argued that the Federal Motor Provider Security Administration’s new non-domiciled CDL restrictions that goes into impact this month will make the roads much less protected, no more protected, as a result of the estimated 200,000 drivers compelled out of the market would get replaced, at the least initially, by much less skilled drivers.
Liu, who’s representing a driver suing FMCSA in federal appeals court docket, additionally contended that the Trump administration has failed to supply information displaying that non-citizens trigger extra crashes than U.S. residents.
“If the priority is that states are improperly issuing licenses to individuals who don’t the truth is already meet the prevailing necessities about coaching, English, testing – then the answer is to tighten steps to make it possible for licenses are going to individuals who fulfill all the necessities.
“However excluding documented immigrants from being truck drivers altogether would hurt freeway security, destroy the livelihood of 1000’s, improve prices throughout an affordability disaster, and disrupt important public providers.”
Associated articles:
- Dalilah Regulation might create a trucking price tremendous cycle
- FMCSA points necessary non-domiciled CDL directives
- FMCSA defends overseas driver restrictions regardless of multi-state backlash
- Feds to axe multi-language testing for truckers
- ELP crackdown exposes how low cost labor, CDL fraud are remaking trucking
Click on for extra BigRig articles by John Gallagher.
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