Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., launched a tip line Tuesday to protect Americans from truckers who are illegal aliens, not authorized to drive a truck, or do not speak English proficiently enough to safely drive on U.S. roads. The tip line comes after numerous illegal aliens who received commercial drivers’ licenses (CDLs) have killed or injured American citizens while operating their vehicles dangerously.
Illegal alien Harjinder Singh of India made headlines over the summer for killing three Americans in Florida after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s, D-Calif., California gave him a CDL. Only days ago another illegal alien, Bekzhan Beishekeev of Kyrgyzstan, killed four people in Banks’ home state of Indiana after obtaining a CDL from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s, D-Penn., Pennsylvania. Beishekeev was let into the country under the Biden administration.
Those are far from the only instances. According to Banks, 50 percent of CDLs from New York alone have been issued improperly. The federal government estimates 200,000 illegal drivers are on U.S. roads. Since commercial trucks cross the United States, this means fraudulent and lax enforcement of immigration and licensing laws endangers Americans everywhere. Every death at the hands of an illegal alien could have been prevented by border and interior immigration enforcement.
“Indiana is the Crossroads of America and Hoosiers are getting killed because drivers who shouldn’t be here in the first place are behind the wheel,” Banks said in a statement. “If you’re driving a truck on our roads, you need to be legal, you need to be able to read traffic signs, and you need to follow the law. The TruckSafe Tipline gives people on the ground a way to speak up when they see carriers cutting corners and putting lives at risk.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that several trucking companies, including the one that hired Beishekeev, are under investigation by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, adding, “these interconnected carriers have all the markings of FRAUD and are accused of being CHAMELEON CARRIERS. This is when companies swap names and DOT numbers to avoid enforcement.”
English proficiency has been required for commercial truck licensing since 1937, but numerous states do not enforce this law, enabling deadly crashes. Banks detailed more instances while speaking on the Senate floor Monday, noting, “It is stories like this that show why mass deportations matter and why they are needed now more than ever”:
At least 7 Hoosiers have died on Indiana roads in the past six months because of illegal immigrants recklessly driving on our roads. At least 8 more have been seriously injured and those are just the cases that I know about.
In November, an illegal immigrant with a fake green card crashed his SUV into a van, killing the 76-year-old driver from Decatur, again not far from Colombia City where I live, before fleeing the scene. The illegal immigrant also seriously injured 3 innocent drivers in that same crash.
Shortly before that accident, an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk and without a license crashed his car into two young parents who were on their way to pick up their kids from their grandparents’ house. The young couple were seriously injured. I’ve seen images of the wreck, and they are lucky to be alive.
And just a couple of days before that, an illegal immigrant from the country of Georgia was driving a truck and towing a trailer when he swerved abruptly and forced a military Humvee off the road. That crash killed Hoosier National Guardsman Terry Frye and seriously injured 3 others. Terry was just 23 years old.
In October, an illegal immigrant driving a semi-truck killed a 54-year-old man on Highway 20 in Indiana, when he failed to stop in traffic. That illegal immigrant had a fake trucking license and owned a trucking company that received $35,000 loan in taxpayer dollars funded through PPP.
Banks noted Democrats are pushing to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the largest wave of illegal immigration in American history. Reports submitted to the tip line will be shared with the Department of Transportation, and “as part of an ongoing oversight and legislative effort.”
