Following the tragic and completely preventable death of four Amish citizens earlier this year, Indiana took significant steps to protect its roadways from unsafe migrant truckers. But without similar action from blue states that are handing out licenses to unqualified drivers, can anyone really feel safe?
Earlier this month, the Hoosier State revoked nearly 1,800 commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) from non-citizens following passage of Indiana House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1200, which passed last month and took effect on April 1.
HEA 1200 was introduced in response to a tragic crash in the state in early February that caused the deaths of four Amish construction workers. (While most Amish themselves do not drive cars, the victims appear to have hired a driver to bring them home from a work site.) Police say that 30-year-old Kyrgyzstani national Bekzhan Beishekeev, a Pennsylvania-based driver, caused “a head-on crash” as AMAC Newsline previously reported.
Beishekeev allegedly “didn’t stop for another slowed semi-truck, swerving instead into oncoming traffic and crashing head-on into a van,” Fox News reporter Bill Melugin said at the time.
Beishekeev, who is now facing four counts of reckless homicide and three counts of criminal recklessness, entered the country thanks to Joe Biden’s open borders policies. Beishekeev ended up in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro’s administration granted him a CDL despite clearly not being skilled or safe enough to drive big rigs on public roadways.
While Shapiro quickly rushed to shift blame on the Trump administration, Indiana Republicans took action by passing HEA 1200 to protect drivers from the likes of Beishekeev and other individuals who do not speak English and do not meet federal qualifications to drive semis.
As a result of the new law, 1,790 truckers without proper paperwork had their CDL privileges revoked on April 15, according to the IndyStar. The drivers were notified that they would be losing their licenses on March 16.
While “non-domiciled CDLs” can go to non-citizen legal residents who have specific visas, they have also been obtained by illegal aliens and drivers who do not meet English language proficiency requirements, in violation of federal regulations. Recent high-profile crashes have drawn national attention to the safety hazard of allowing unqualified migrants behind the wheel.
“Moving forward, all future non-citizen CDL applications will need one of three approved work visas while also requiring the driver to demonstrate proficiency in English,” Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith announced. “In addition, any employers who knowingly hire illegal drivers without a valid CDL will face a $50,000 fine.”
The law ensures truck drivers “are the best and properly trained that we can get,” State Rep. Jim Pressel told WTHR.
Industry leaders also praised the law for ensuring only qualified individuals are driving trucks.
The Indiana Motor Truck Association said a lack of government oversight “allowed CDLs to be given to drivers who have been found to be in the United States illegally” and “have not been properly trained, and are operating commercial vehicles unsafely.”
The group’s president, Gary Langston, said the bill “is an important step toward removing unsafe drivers and making our nation’s highways safer for all motorists.”
The law is a positive first step, but Indiana leaders can only do so much. In the case that spurred passage of HEA 1200 in the first place, the driver responsible for the deadly crash received his license from Pennsylvania.
A similar pattern played out in Florida, where an Indian illegal alien caused a deadly crash in the Sunshine State after making an illegal U-turn on a highway. That driver, Harjinder Singh, obtained a CDL in both Washington and California despite having failed basic competency exams. As AMAC Newsline previously reported, he answered only two of 12 questions correctly on an English language test and identified just one of four traffic signs.
Thankfully, President Trump is cracking down on states that illegally issue CDLs. Last October, the Department of Homeland Security took 145 illegal truckers off the roads in Indiana alone.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has also audited states and threatened to revoke lucrative federal highway funding unless they come into compliance.
“I need our state partners to understand that they work for the American people, not illegal immigrants who broke the law by illegally entering our country and continue to break it by operating massive big rigs without the proper qualifications,” Duffy said in February.
Americans should feel safe driving on highways and roads that their taxes pay for. They should not have to live in fear that an illegal alien who speaks no English and doesn’t know the rules of the road is barreling toward their family in a semi-truck.
But the reality of living in a country with free movement between states is that the failures of one state government can have deadly consequences in every other state. Pennsylvania’s negligence becomes Indiana’s tragedy. Without a commitment from every state to enforce federal laws and regulations, every American driver will always be forced to keep a closer eye on their rearview mirror.
AMAC Newsline contributor Matt Lamb is an associate editor for The College Fix. He previously worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, and Turning Point USA. He previously interned for Open the Books. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, LifeSiteNews, Human Life Review, Headline USA, and other outlets. The opinions expressed are his own. Follow him @mattlamb22 on X.
