- The US Department of Transportation has revoked commercial vehicle licences from around 200,000 immigrants with temporary status since March 2026, including Daca beneficiaries, refugees and asylum seekers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) carried out intensified roadside checks for months, which were suspended in mid-July after two deaths in one week in Texas and Maine.
- Trump has proposed the so-called Dalilah Law to Congress, which would bar states from issuing CDL licences to irregular immigrants and impose tougher penalties on drivers with poor English-language skills. The administration cites 17 fatal crashes in 2025 involving non-citizen drivers, though these accounted for less than 1% of the total.
- The driver shortage in the United States remains structural, with 70% of US companies surveyed reporting severe recruitment difficulties. Walmart, by contrast, has increased its driver workforce by 33% in two years, with pay of up to $130,000, around €113,000.
Trump’s war on immigration has also reached road haulage, first with stringent checks on drivers, then with the revocation of tens of thousands of CDL licences (Commercial Driver’s License, the professional licence required to drive lorries and buses) and finally with a plan, announced in mid-July 2026, to replace immigrant drivers without regular documents with “proud American veterans”. The initiative comes at the end of a phase of tighter immigration controls that has already led, since March, to the revocation of commercial licences (CDL) from around 200,000 immigrants with temporary status, including beneficiaries of the Daca programme, refugees and asylum seekers.
Alongside the crackdown on licences, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) carried out months of intensive roadside checks on foreign drivers, with agents in tactical gear, often travelling in unmarked vehicles and wearing face coverings. Operations intensified further in the final five days of June 2026, before the Department of Homeland Security, led by Kristi Noem, ordered the suspension of most checks in mid-July, after three deaths in one week were linked to traffic stops involving motorists: two of the victims died in Houston, Texas, and Biddeford, Maine. The current order provides that only drivers with serious criminal records should be stopped.
At the centre of Trump’s legislative proposal is the Dalilah Law, which would prevent any state from issuing CDL licences to irregular immigrants, require immediate revocation for those with temporary status and toughen penalties for drivers with poor English-language skills. The administration justifies the measure by citing 17 fatal crashes in 2025 attributed to non-citizen drivers. Pbs NewsHour, however, calculated that this figure represents less than 1% of fatal crashes caused each year by truck drivers in the United States, noting that there is no statistical evidence linking immigration status to driving safety.
The immigration crackdown comes on top of a driver shortage that US road haulage has been grappling with for years. As early as 2019, the American Trucking Association (Ata) estimated a deficit of 60,000 drivers, with projections rising to 100,000 by 2023. The problem worsened after the pandemic: according to Ata chief economist Bob Costello, the number of freight drivers fell to 430,000 in 2021, compared with 465,000 at the start of 2020. In 2025 the situation remained critical: an Iru report found that 70% of the 5,100 road haulage companies surveyed were experiencing serious or very serious recruitment difficulties, even before the new 2026 immigration rules added further pressure to the available driver pool.
Several structural factors are fuelling the shortfall. The average age of US drivers was already 55 in 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with insufficient generational turnover. Working conditions are also a factor: average pay for an employed truck driver is around $47,130 a year, about €41,000, against shifts that can reach 70 hours a week, while the risk of death at work is 10 times higher than the average for workers. Iru notes, however, that average pay in the sector remains 30% to 135% higher than the basic cost of living. According to the association, greater pressures come from the lack of safe and well-equipped parking areas and limited access to medical care at delivery sites. In 2026, tighter language checks on drivers and the scaling back of inclusion policies have also been added, further reducing the available labour pool, according to an industry analysis cited by Bloomberg.
Among large companies, Walmart stands out as an example of effective management of the shortage: according to Bloomberg, the group has increased its number of drivers by 33% in two years, offering starting salaries of up to $115,000 a year, around €100,000, and up to $130,000, around €113,000, for more complex routes, almost double the industry average. The strategy combines high pay, operational stability and investment in training and fleet. Iru secretary general Umberto de Pretto, meanwhile, proposes integrating career paths into education systems, removing unrealistic age thresholds for training and increasing investment in safe parking areas. The immigration crackdown, which affects drivers already in service, may now worsen the problem, and it is not certain that veterans can fill the gaps created both by the structural shortage and by the revocation of licences from immigrants.
P.R.
