The largest trucking association in the country is pleading with the Trump administration to stop foreign nationals from ripping off American truckers.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA), which represents more than 37,000 motor carriers and suppliers throughout the U.S., is asking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to put a stop to unauthorized Mexican drivers hauling point-to-point loads within the U.S., a process known as cabotage, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The ATA argues this unlawful conduct by foreign drivers is a serious issue that hurts American truckers.
“A foreign driver engaged in cabotage is not a technicality or a minor paperwork violation,” ATA President Chris Spear wrote to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. “It is outright lawbreaking that suppresses wages and work for American truck drivers.”
“U.S. carriers who flout these rules gain an unlawful competitive advantage over law abiding companies, distorting the marketplace and putting compliant operators at risk of closure,” Spear continued. “Each illegal load carried by an unauthorized foreign driver represents income stolen directly from a hardworking U.S. driver.”
Under current law, eligible Mexican and Canadian-based trucks and their drivers are permitted to deliver international loads into the U.S and pick up freight headed out of the country, but they are strictly prohibited from driving freight within the U.S., according to the ATA. However, the trucking industry has experienced an uptick in complaints over U.S. motor carriers unlawfully hiring Mexican B-1 visa drivers to deliver point-to-point loads solely within the U.S. without authorization.
Cabotage has been an ongoing issue for the industry for years.
In 2019, federal grand juries indicted two trucking companies in southern Arizona for unlawfully employing Mexican drivers who were willing to work for lower wages, according to the Arizona Daily Star. Both owners of the companies were later convicted of illegally using Mexican drivers to haul freight between points in the U.S.
Spear pointed out that one of the trucking companies reaped $2.4 million by hiring the unauthorized foreign drivers and the other company raked in $1.3 million before the operation was shut down.
“These are not isolated bad actors — they are part of a pattern of willful lawbreaking that undermines the integrity of our supply chain,” Spear wrote in his letter to DHS.
The ATA is asking DHS, which has sole jurisdiction over cabotage laws, to dedicate more resources to fighting against these violations. Spear argues that a crackdown on the relatively small number of motor carriers engaged in cabotage would send a clear message across the entire trucking industry.
The Trump administration’s work to crackdown on border security and tighten English standards has earned praise from the ATA.
In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that reinstated tougher English proficiency standards for commercial driver’s license holders, mandating they know enough English and U.S. road signs or else be taken off the roads. The ATA issued a public statement thanking the administration for this action.
In the wake of the horrific crash that took place on a Florida turnpike in August, the ATA also questioned how the truck driver allegedly at fault for the fatal accident was able to obtain a commercial driver’s license from California, echoing similar statements made by the Trump administration. A subsequent investigation into the crash determined that the trucker, an illegal migrant from India, did not know basic English and could not pass a road sign.
A spokesperson for DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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