WASHINGTON — A controversial hearing on the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign truck drivers was used to push for more coordination between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local police to detain and deport illegal truckers.
Testifying in support of the Trump administration’s restrictions on non-domiciled truck drivers, Tim Tipton, Commissioner of Oklahoma’s Department of Public Safety, explained to the House Homeland Security Committee’s oversight subcommittee how credentialing state and local officers through ICE in 2025 to enforce immigration laws has resulted in the state’s highway patrol taking over 450 commercial drivers into custody for immigration violations.
“Many of these drivers struggle with even basic English language proficiency and likely received their licenses from unscrupulous CDL mills,” Tipton testified.
Asked by committee chairman Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., how it could be replicated in other states – particularly “red” states – Tipton said it could be done relatively quickly.
“I think Oklahoma’s the model example for when state and local law enforcement work with ICE, there’s not chaos and uproar,” he said.
“Oklahoma in 2025 ranked in the top three [states] for illegal criminal aliens removed from the country. You don’t see all the chaos, and it’s due to cooperation. So for the safety of the motoring public on the CMV [commercial motor vehicle] issue … cooperation with ICE is critical and can be done in a calm, legitimate legal way.”
Lacking data
Justification for holding the hearing at all was questioned from the start. The subcommittee’s ranking member, Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., asserted that the committee had no jurisdiction over transportation safety.
“I want it on record that this hearing is really about nothing more than scapegoating immigrants for the President’s economy, which is running off the road,” Thanedar said before the witnesses were introduced.
Thanedar brought to the panel Wendy Liu, an attorney for Public Citizen Litigation Group, as a witness to help make his case.
“The CDL licensing standards are identical for U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and documented immigrants alike regardless of citizenship or immigration status – all drivers must demonstrate English language proficiency, 30 different vehicle inspection control and driving skills, and demonstrate their knowledge in 20 different areas,” Liu said.
Liu argued that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s new non-domiciled CDL restrictions that goes into effect this month will make the roads less safe, not more safe, because the estimated 200,000 drivers forced out of the market would be replaced, at least initially, by less experienced drivers.
Liu, who is representing a driver suing FMCSA in federal appeals court, also contended that the Trump administration has failed to provide data showing that non-citizens cause more crashes than U.S. citizens.
“If the concern is that states are improperly issuing licenses to people who do not in fact already meet the existing requirements about training, English, testing – then the solution is to tighten steps to make sure that licenses are going to people who satisfy all of the requirements.
“But excluding documented immigrants from being truck drivers altogether would harm highway safety, destroy the livelihood of thousands, increase costs during an affordability crisis, and disrupt essential public services.”
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