I started my second term in the U.S. House of Representatives as President Trump closed the door on the Democrats’ open border policies. One of his first actions upon being sworn in to a second term was to immediately reinforce our immigration defenses. Americans, however, are still dealing with the devastating consequences of President Biden’s four-year open border policies, and it is the American truckers who are among those having suffered the most.

The Democrats’ policies to erase our borders flooded our highways with thousands of immigrants pursuing employment in industries with low barriers of entry. Commercial truck driving has been chief among them, where those who are willing to flout our laws only need access to a big rig and willing employers. The problem is two-fold: nefarious carriers exploit the ready supply of cheap legal and illegal immigrant labor while sanctuary states issue commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to people who have no business behind the wheel of an 80,000lb vehicle.

Long-standing issues that have plagued truckers for years are now magnified by the unchecked migration, congesting streets and truck stops with drivers who can’t speak English or read our road signs. The proliferation of dangerous, unqualified drivers sharing highways has resulted in heartbreaking tragedies that were entirely preventable.

Requiring English on the Road

In an era where urban elites dismiss the men and women who keep America moving, I immediately elevated issues surrounding illegal immigrant truck drivers to President Trump upon his second inauguration. By April 2025, the President signed an executive order to enforce “Commonsense Rules of the Road for America’s Truck Drivers.” This directive reinstated requirements to enforce a federal mandate that all commercial drivers be proficient in the English language. President Obama had abandoned this commonsense mandate. 

Anyone who has driven through Wyoming has seen the overhead electronic billboard signs displaying critical messages about roadway conditions. These highway bulletins provide vital information related to alerts, closures, and the actual conditions of our windswept highways around the state. Even those of us who are proficient in English may have a hard time capturing every word before passing underneath such a sign driving at 80 miles per hour. The idea that federal regulators would allow a non-English speaker—one who cannot read our signs or communicate with law enforcement—behind the wheel of any vehicle, let alone in the driver’s seat of an 18-wheeler, is government malpractice at its best, and intentional callousness for the foreseeable consequences at its worst. 

President Trump and I are making trucking great again by removing drivers who cannot read and speak the English language from service. I introduced Connor’s Law, named after an 18-year-old who was killed by a distracted truck driver—who could not speak English—one month after President Trump issued his English proficiency order. I introduced the Commercial Motor Vehicle English Proficiency Act to ensure language standards are upheld throughout the entire process of credentialing CDLs. 

Reining in Non-Domiciled CDLs 

Licenses issued illegally anywhere threaten drivers everywhere. Wyoming is America’s least populated state, but we suffer the highest rate of fatal truck collisions. Our weather can be extreme, challenging even the most experienced drivers. Data from the Wyoming Department of Transportation revealed that, between 2018 and 2022, there were more than 4,100 crashes involving commercial motor vehicles. Roughly 90 percent of these collisions involved out-of-state drivers. 

Wyoming’s unique geography demonstrates why one state’s failure to responsibly license qualified drivers represents a nationwide problem. The U.S. Department of Transportation has conducted full scale audits of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licensing practices following four years of Biden’s open border policies. Non-domiciled CDLs are licenses issued to non-resident drivers who are often from a foreign country but claim to be “authorized” to work in the United States. The Trump administration’s investigation of state licensing procedures, however, has exposed incredibly dangerous failures to adhere to the most basic testing protocols and safety standards from coast to coast. 

• In North Carolina, more than half of all non-domiciled CDLs were illegally issued.
• In New York, more than half of non-domiciled CDLs were improperly issued to foreign drivers. 
• According to the Department of Transportation, California admitted to illegally issuing more than 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs to foreigners.
• One-third of Minnesota’s non-domiciled CDLs were illegally issued.
• According to the Department of Transportation, nearly 1 in 5 non-domiciled CDLs issued by Illinois were illegally issued.

The Trump administration has responded to the rampant abuse in the system with new limits on non domiciled CDLs. In March 2026, a new U.S. Department of Transportation rule took effect, restricting non-domiciled eligibility to U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents, and a very limited class of visas, including H2A, H2B, and E-2. Employment authorization documents are no longer accepted as proof of eligibility, and states are required to query the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system to confirm every applicant’s lawful immigration status. I have also co-sponsored the SAFE Driving Laws Act with U.S. Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois to withhold federal highway dollars from sanctuary states that issue non-domiciled CDLs to illegal aliens. 

I introduced the Responsible Opportunity for Under-21 Trucking Engagement (ROUTE) Act last December to expand CDL opportunities for qualified 18 to 20-year-olds to ensure we meet our long term truck driver needs. Under existing federal regulations, 18 to 20-year-old drivers are permitted to operate in intrastate commerce but are prohibited from doing so interstate. This regulatory barrier excludes a valuable segment of the driver community from regional supply chains, particularly for rural, agricultural communities along state lines, while making it increasingly cumbersome to attract prospective drivers into the career field. These prohibitions make little sense, as qualified 18 to 20-year old CDL holders in Wyoming can make treacherous multi-hundred-mile trips across Wyoming in varying terrain but are forbidden from hauling shipments just a few miles across our six different state lines.

Cracking Down on Chameleon Carriers 

Congress must confront the companies driving this dysfunction throughout the system. Broken licensing regimes have caused a proliferation in “chameleon carriers,” or reincarnated carriers. Chameleon carriers routinely shut down and reopen under different identities to evade penalties, enforcement actions, increased insurance premiums, or other consequences. Chameleon carrier networks rack up violations but continue to operate through loopholes and deficiencies in regulatory detection systems to escape accountability.

I introduced the Safety and Accountability in Freight Enforcement (SAFE) Act to mandate the creation of a new advanced automation tool improving detection and accountability for bad actors. My bill has been endorsed by the Teamsters, American Trucking Associations (ATA), and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) to bring this madness to an end. 

Reclaiming Our Borders

The crisis plaguing America’s trucking industry is another dangerous manifestation of Democrats’ policies that led to a four-year border disaster. President Trump and Republicans in Congress, however, are reclaiming America’s borders with historic investments in security. The Working Families Tax Cuts law, passed last summer, funds the processing of deportations and finishes the border wall. President Trump, meanwhile, did not wait on legislation from Congress to take decisive action at the start of his second term with the reversal of Biden-era policies that kept the border open. In 2025, the United States experienced net-negative migration in every metro area as a result. According to the White House, border crossings have also fallen to their lowest level since the 1970s. 

More than 3.5 million tuckers haul the goods that keep us moving every day. These men and women deserve safe streets free from unnecessary hazards such as the unqualified drivers who cannot speak English and undermine their wages. So does every individual and family who share our roads.