by David Lindfield
American truckers are praising President Donald Trump’s new crackdown on illegal alien drivers.
The president has launched a sweeping federal effort that American truckers say is making highways safer and pushing freight rates higher after years of undercutting by cheap foreign labor.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) rolled out a series of reforms tightening English proficiency standards and imposing new restrictions on foreign commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs).
The move follows several deadly crashes caused by illegal migrants who had improperly obtained CDLs from state agencies.
“I’ve definitely noticed some rates going up,” said Ilya Denisenko, owner and operator of ICV Express, in an interview with the Daily Caller.
Denisenko said that just days earlier, he negotiated a load originally listed for $1,000 up to $1,900.
“Without me even speaking to someone, they approved $1,900,” he said.
“That’s almost double of what they had originally posted for, and I would say the normal rate for that lane was about maybe $1,500 to $1,600, and I automatically got $1,900.”
According to the American Trucking Associations, roughly 3.5 million Americans hold CDLs.
Industry analysts estimate that about 200,000 of those licenses are “non-domiciled,” issued by state governments to foreign nationals who are not residents of that state.
“I don’t think that’s that many compared to the total number of drivers, but I think it’ll more affect certain markets,” Denisenko said.
“They’re either in the New York or Chicago area, and it seems like all of their drivers are visa holder drivers with non-domiciled CDLs.”