Foreign-born truckers who illegally immigrated to the United States are receiving inadequate driving instruction, taking jobs away from American workers, and endangering the lives of fellow drivers.
That’s the message of a new documentary from Steve Cortes called “Collision Course: Illegal Migrant Truckers.”
Cortes, a Daily Signal contributor and founder of the League of American Workers advocacy group, exposes how political agendas have led to deaths on the road and a bad job market for the truckers who keep America moving.
Featuring interviews with leaders of companies in the trucking industry and clips of the worst accidents involving foreign-born drivers, Cortes’ documentary gives Americans an understanding of why our nation’s trucking industry needs protection.
Risks on the Road
“Radical policies and dirty politicians put your family at risk on the road,” Cortes said. “I’m talking about extremists like [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom, who, frankly, don’t care if you die in totally preventable accidents, as long as they get to push reckless, unpopular policies that please their narrow base, but turn too many American highways into danger zones.”
Democrat-led states have loosened their standards for obtaining commercial driver’s licenses, and it’s resulted in bad drivers commanding 80,000-pound trucks.
“Now, who is put in danger? Well, just about everyone, unfortunately, because these intentionally reckless policies create massive risks for every single American just getting into a vehicle,” Cortes said.
That drives up prices in the grocery store and spikes insurance premiums.
It also hurts the men who have honestly earned their CDL certifications, and the companies that pay the $12,000 to hire, certify, and train a driver before putting him or her on the road.
CDL Mills in Blue States
Mark Hazelwood has worked in the trucking business for his entire life and founded the truck stop company Pilot Flying J in 1985. Now the company sees up to $40 billion a year in business and has over 700 locations. He said foreign drivers have increased drastically over the last six years.
“It really exacerbated itself just after COVID,” Hazelwood said. “Everybody talked about having a supply chain issue, and so the previous administration then went to the blue states, and they quickly set up CDL mills, and within 24, 48 hours, they put these illegals out on the road with a CDL in their hand.”
According to Roadmaster Drivers School, obtaining a CDL typically requires at least one month. The rushed process under the Biden administration tripled the number of drivers who acquired CDLs outside of their state—and many of them were certified at so-called “CDL mills.”
“The non-domiciled CDL holders went from, I think at the end of the first Trump term, was in the low 200s, maybe upper 180, 190, and now that number is over 780,000 non-domiciled CDL holders,” Hazelwood said.
Hazelwood also noted in the documentary that there has been a problem with foreign drivers bypassing the electronic logging devices that tally the miles and hours driven, resulting in drivers being on the road for more hours a day than is legal for safety reasons.
These truckers are also far more affordable for companies to hire.
“They can pay them literally half of what they’re paying those that are running legally,” Hazelwood said.
Illegal Alien Highway Wrecks
One in five truck drivers in America is foreign, according to Cortes. Some of them are legally certified, capable drivers. But some turn highways into a wrecking zone.
In 2025, for example, illegal migrant Harjinder Singh pulled an illegal U-turn in Florida, killing three American citizens.
“When he was pulled off the side of the road, he answered three out of 16 questions properly,” Florida’s Lt. Gov. Jay Collins said in a clip. “Why was he driving in the first place? He didn’t have basic English proficiency, he didn’t know the road signs, and yet he is driving a giant vehicle across our state.”
Florida can’t be the only state to enforce legitimate CDL certification. What’s legal in one state affects the entire country, according to Nathan Meisgeier, president and chief counsel of Werner Enterprises trucking.
“A lot of truck freight crosses multiple state lines from origin to destination,” Meisgeier said. “And so, if you have a CDL from a state that is being overly permissive, that creates capacity and a safety concern in all of the other 48 contiguous United States.”
There’s no doubt that trucking has suffered under loose standards. But America can’t run without its truckers. And enforcing good policy will ensure America continues to thrive.
“It’s been a tough three or four years, but we can see the turn has happened,” Meisgeier said. “And again, it’s a great industry. Keeping America moving makes us feel like we’re all contributing to the great American success story.”
