America’s Roads Just Got More Dangerous Thanks to Radical Judges

WASHINGTON, DC- The time for the Trump administration to defy rogue federal judges is long overdue. The latest decision by Marxists in black robes saw the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruling that the Department of Transportation cannot place restrictions on illegal aliens obtaining commercial driver’s licenses. In other words, the court gave a green light to allowing illegal aliens who cannot read or write English to operate 80,000-pound tractor-trailers on America’s highways, endangering anyone who uses our roads. 

Fox News Digital reports that the restrictions placed on all immigrants, including those here illegally, cannot be enforced. This is just the latest example of liberal judges attempting to interfere in the Trump administration’s efforts to make the country a safer place. 

The DOT announced the restrictions in September after an illegal alien driving an 18-wheeler made an illegal U-turn on a highway in Fort Pierce, Florida, cutting off a van, which crashed into the trailer, killing three people in the minivan, as reported by Law Enforcement Today. 

In that case, Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India who entered the U.S. at the Mexican border in 2018, pleaded not guilty to three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of manslaughter, despite the brain-dead maneuver being captured on the tractor-trailer’s video cameras. Singh showed no emotion whatsoever when the van careened into his semi-truck unit. 

In overturning the regulation, the court said the federal government didn’t follow “proper procedure” when creating the rule, nor explain how the rule would promote safety. 

There have been numerous documented cases since the September crash in which truck drivers were unable to read English road signs and communicate with law enforcement officers coherently. That apparently doesn’t matter to liberal judges. 

The judges cited Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data that shows 5% of commercial driver’s licenses are held by immigrants, though they account for 0.2% of fatal crashes. The data cited does not differentiate between legal immigrants who are assimilating into US culture and illegal aliens who entered the country without the legal right to do so. 

Singh received his CDL license in California and failed his CDL knowledge exam in Washington state 10 times in only two months, while also failing his air brakes knowledge exam twice, according to the Florida Attorney General’s Office. He also failed an English proficiency test. 

According to an audit of California DMV records, many immigrants’ licenses remained valid long after their work permits expired, leading the state to revoke 17,000 licenses. 

Under the proposed DOT restrictions, immigrants who hold three specific visa classes would be allowed to obtain one-year CDL licenses and must have their immigration status confirmed via a federal database, Fox News Digital reported. 

Those rules would disqualify approximately 10,000 of the 200,000 current immigrants with CDLs, however, the rules would not be enforced, meaning drivers could keep their licenses until they expire. 

A trade group representing over 150,000 independent owner-operators, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), praised the administration’s efforts to “restore commonsense safety standards” in an Aug. 26 statement. 

“OOIDA applauds the Administration for seeing through the myth of a truck driver shortage and continuing efforts to restore commonsense safety standards on our nation’s highways,” the organization wrote. “Pausing visas for commercial truck drivers will help ensure only qualified individuals get licensed. Additionally, there is unlikely to be any negative effect on the supply chain, as the trucking industry continues to face overcapacity.” 

Last month, the organization wrote to Congress asking for increased driver training and licensing standards for truck drivers. The organization specifically asked lawmakers to support H.R. 5688, the Non-Domiciled CDL Integrity Act, and to reject H.R. 5563, the DRIVE-Safe Act. 

“The trucking industry has suffered from an overcapacity of truck drivers, which has helped drive the longest-running freight recession in decades. To be clear, there is no “driver shortage in trucking. Instead, there is tremendous driver turnover as under-trained drivers are put into a new job they are unprepared for. Congress should reject legislation, such as H.R. 5563, the DRIVE-Safe Act, that would exacerbate driver turnover by placing younger drivers in these same exact challenging and unappealing positions. Like relaxed enforcement of English language proficiency requirements and the recent explosion of non-domiciled DCLs being issued by states, policies like the DRIVE-Safe Act are said to be addressing a “driver shortage” that never existed. In reality, those supporting these policies simply want to maintain a steady flow of cheap labor. Rather than making it easier for unsafe drivers to enter our industry, Congress should take aggressive action that will strengthen training, licensing, and qualification protocols for commercial truck drivers,” OOIDA President & CEO Todd Spencer wrote to lawmakers. 

In October, the Department of Homeland Security held an immigration raid on I-94 in Indiana, resulting in the arrest of 146 illegal alien truck drivers, many of whom possessed criminal records. 

That same month, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced the administration is withholding $40 million from California over its refusal to enforce English language requirements for truckers, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

To get the funding restored, the Golden State must ensure that state inspectors test truck drivers’ English during roadside inspections and remove any who fail.