US President Donald Trump said his administration is cracking down on truck drivers who are in the country without immigration status. According to him, as part of efforts to combat illegal migration, American veterans should replace them.
Trump made the corresponding statement at the Defense and Innovation Summit in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The President argued that illegal migrants working as truck drivers are responsible for a large number of deaths. He noted that many of these drivers do not understand road signs and use drugs.
Trump added that as part of the new initiative, veterans will be trained to drive trucks, and former military personnel who already have experience driving heavy equipment will be able to get a commercial driver's license in a simplified manner.
“Any American who has driven a heavy truck while serving in the armed forces will automatically be eligible for a commercial driver's license,” Trump said.
He cited a crash this month in Pennsylvania that killed a state police officer as justification for the tougher measures. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the driver of the truck was a Haitian immigrant who was not authorized to reside in the United States but had a commercial driver's license issued in Massachusetts.
As The New York Times (NYT) notes, Trump's proposal is consistent with his administration's policies regarding immigrant drivers. In April 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Transportation to require English language proficiency for commercial drivers and to verify the rights of foreign nationals authorized to work in the country.
In addition, authorities previously announced their intention to ban the issuance of commercial driver's licenses to asylum seekers, refugees and participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. These initiatives have drawn sharp criticism and have been the subject of litigation.
In March of this year, about 200,000 immigrant drivers who were authorized to live and work in the United States lost their driver's licenses. In 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were more than 700,000 drivers, representing 18% of all commercial truck drivers.
At the same time, there have been no comprehensive studies to determine how many accidents occur due to the fault of immigrant drivers, the NYT notes. Available statistics, on the contrary, indicate a reduction in both the total number of accidents involving large trucks and the number of such fatal accidents.
In the 12 months from September 2024 to September 2025, there were 3,632 crashes involving large trucks in the United States. This is 15% less than in the same period a year earlier, when 4,292 such accidents were registered.
