Illegal immigrant truck drivers endanger Americans as foreign companies ‘exploit’ industry, exec says

A trucking executive claims that the U.S. has allowed “foreign-owned entities” that don’t follow regulations to “export” and “exploit” the industry, which he believes explains the surge in illegal immigrant drivers.

The federal government is cracking down on illegal immigrant truck drivers following a wave of fatal crashes across America. In late October, the Department of Homeland Security announced 146 illegal immigrant truck drivers were arrested along northwest Indiana highways as part of “Operation Midway Blitz.”

On Oct. 15, Borko Stankovic, an illegal immigrant, was driving on U.S. Highway 20 in Indiana when traffic came to a stop due to a Ram Sprinter turning near Douglas Drive, but the suspect didn’t appear to slow down in his semi-truck, according to FOX 32. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital Stankovic has been in the U.S. since February 2011 when his nonimmigrant visa status expired.

Stankovic attempted to make a hard evasive left turn when he entered opposite traffic and hit a Subaru Crosstrek, the Portage Police Department said. The semi-truck then jackknifed as a result and collided with the Ram Sprinter, which was pushed into a road sign.

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Officials said the driver of the Subaru, 54-year-old Jeffrey Eberly, died at the scene.

Stankovic possessed a suspended commercial driver’s license (CDL) which belonged to a family member and wasn’t licensed to drive a truck himself, authorities said. He was charged with felony reckless homicide and felony criminal recklessness resulting in death.

In a separate incident on Aug. 12 in Fort Pierce, Florida, Harjinder Singh was driving a semi-truck when authorities said he attempted to make a U-turn in an unauthorized area. The trailer then jackknifed and was hit by a minivan, killing all three people inside the minivan, officials said.

Singh crossed the U.S. border illegally in 2018 and was issued a CDL in California, authorities said. Singh was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide.

Zach Meiborg, who owns Meiborg Brothers Trucking in Illinois, told Fox News Digital that a sizable portion of the trucking industry has been shipped off to foreign-owned countries who don’t have an issue with hiring illegal immigrants even though it’s against the law.

“We’re watching our bureaucrats export the most vital industry to our economy to foreign-owned entities, typically in the Eastern Bloc, formerly Russia. That’s why they have no problem hiring them,” Meiborg said. “Where foreign-owned companies realized they could exploit like five different areas of the trucking economy and explode the growth of their fleets. And they did it by just flat out breaking the laws and our bureaucrats that regulate us looked the other way.”

Meiborg said some trucking companies saw an opportunity to move their operations offshore during the COVID-19 pandemic, putting American companies at a disadvantage.

“Their dispatch is over there, their safety is over there, the recruiting is over there, and they do it all digitally online,” he said. “So they’re running foreign labor, imported from overseas, not trained, they’re paying them 1099, not W-2, not complying with any of the ACA or state tax laws or federal tax laws.”

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Meiborg said these companies are creating their own electronic logbooks and self-certifying that they’re following certain regulations, therefore manipulating the system with little to no oversight.

The Department of Transportation has begun taking action to combat the number of illegal immigrants operating semi-trucks. In late September, the agency announced an emergency interim final rule that would increase federal oversight of how states issue non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses.

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Robert Khachatryan, founder and CEO of Freight Right Global Logistics, told Fox News Digital that the federal government needs to continue strengthening its oversight of the industry if it wants to address the number of illegal immigrants driving commercial trucks.

“It’s just about enforcing the existing law, right? It’s not like we’re saying change the law, don’t provide driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. They’re not supposed to. The law is very clear. You need to be a legal resident or you need to be a U.S. citizen to obtain a commercial driver’s license in most states, as far as I know. So it just comes down to enforcement,” Khachatryan said.