Alabama has become the latest flashpoint in a nationwide push to clean up the trucking industry – and, depending on who you ask, to quietly ramp up immigration enforcement at the same time.
FOX10 News reporter Shelby Myers reports that 82 commercial drivers have been detained in Alabama on ICE holds since late October, after joint enforcement operations on the state’s major interstates.
Governor Kay Ivey says 12 of those drivers didn’t have any driver’s license at all, not even a standard non-commercial one.
For everyday drivers sharing the road with 80,000-pound rigs, that’s a chilling detail.
For immigrant drivers and companies that rely on them, it’s a warning that the climate has changed.
Deadly Crashes Push Alabama Into the Spotlight
Shelby Myers explains that Alabama’s crackdown is part of a larger response to multiple fatal truck crashes that pushed the U.S. Department of Transportation to promise tougher oversight on commercial driver’s licenses, or CDLs.
One of those deadly wrecks happened over the summer in Thomasville.
Myers reports that a Ukrainian-born truck driver ran a red light and plowed into several vehicles, killing two people. He was in the U.S. on a visa and held a valid CDL – at least on paper.
But there was a key problem.
According to Myers, the driver did not speak English, despite the fact that English proficiency is required to legally hold a CDL in the United States.
That crash became a powerful symbol: a legal license, a legal visa, and still a catastrophic failure of the system meant to keep dangerous drivers off the road.
It’s not surprising that state officials wanted to show they were doing something.
ALEA + ICE: A New Kind of Roadside Check
Myers reports that Governor Ivey announced a new partnership between ALEA (the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency) and ICE.
These joint operations have focused on major interstate corridors where truck traffic is heavy.
Over just two enforcement waves – one from October 27–30, another from November 16–18 – troopers referred 242 people to ICE, according to Myers.
ICE then placed 82 of those drivers on immigration holds based on their status.
Myers says that among those 82, twelve drivers had no driver’s license whatsoever. Not a CDL. Not a regular Class D license. Nothing.
That’s not a gray area.
That’s someone piloting a massive commercial vehicle with zero legal authorization to drive any vehicle at all.
Whatever you think about immigration policy, it’s hard to argue that belongs on an interstate.
“Bad Actors” and Unfair Competition
To understand how the industry views all this, Myers spoke with Mark Colson, president and CEO of the Alabama Trucking Association.
Colson told her that many professional drivers and small trucking businesses are frustrated from both sides.
On one side, he said, they “get attacked by lawyers and frivolous lawsuits.” On the other, they face “unfair competition for people who break the rules and don’t operate fairly and unsafely.”
Colson supports weeding out “bad actors” who undercut safety and underbid legitimate carriers.
He also flagged a structural problem Myers highlighted: some foreign drivers’ work visas expire, but their CDLs remain valid under state systems, creating a mismatch between immigration status and licensing.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Myers reports, has issued a directive to states to align visa timelines with CDL validity, so a license can’t quietly outlive the legal right to work.
From a safety standpoint, that makes sense.
A CDL is more than a plastic card; it’s supposed to reflect that a driver is legally and professionally cleared to be behind the wheel of a dangerous machine.
From an immigration standpoint, it effectively turns licensing databases into another enforcement tool.
Shutting Down Thousands of Training Schools
Myers also reports that Secretary Duffy is planning to shut down about 3,000 driver training schools across the country.
Those schools, according to Duffy’s directive, either failed to meet training standards or are accused of falsifying training data.
The list of schools has not yet been made public, Myers notes, but Colson says he doesn’t believe any of them are in Alabama.
That doesn’t mean Alabama is insulated. Colson points out that drivers trained at questionable schools can pass through the state at any time, which means Alabama’s roads are still affected.
Colson argues that integrity in training and licensing is non-negotiable.
“Holding up the integrity of training schools and driver’s licenses and safety protocols and safety regulations, those are paramount in our industry,” he told Myers.
He added that anyone who wants to “stand up and try to protect the bad actors who are operating unsafely and unfairly in this industry” is not likely to get very far.
It’s a blunt statement, and it reflects a mood that runs deep in trucking: most drivers want the reckless ones gone, even if the crackdown brings extra scrutiny to everyone.
Truckers React: “These Are Not Truck Drivers”
On the other side of the country – and the culture – the news landed differently, but with just as much intensity.
Trucking YouTuber Alex Mai, host of Mutha Trucker – Official Trucking Channel, told his viewers that stories like Alabama’s are becoming a pattern.
“We might as well start a segment called ‘ICE Detained,’” Mai joked, noting that “every state” seems to be running its own operations and detaining illegal truck drivers.
Mai told his audience that Governor Ivey’s announcement means Alabama is “not playing.”
He walked through the same numbers Myers reported: operations in late October and mid-November and the 82 individuals detained from commercial operations.
Mai’s concern isn’t just about Alabama. He also highlighted a Texas Department of Public Safety stop where an officer pulled over a semi being operated without a CDL and eventually discovered 23 people hiding in the sleeper berth.
“We need to stop calling these guys truck drivers,” Mai said. “These are not truck drivers. These are just people illegally doing stuff.”
That distinction matters to him.
For Mai, professional drivers – especially those who came up the hard way in trucking – don’t want to be lumped in with smugglers or unlicensed operators.
He told viewers he has had random men approach him near border states asking if he would “just pick something up.” Every time, he said, he walks away.
“I don’t care what it is because it’s not worth my life and livelihood,” Mai said.
He warned that once a driver does something for cartels or criminal organizations “you will be stuck doing it for life.”
His tone is part cautionary tale, part survival guide.
And it underlines the same point Alabama officials are making: once you mix heavy trucks, illegal schemes, and unqualified drivers, disaster is never far away.
Safety vs. Immigration Crackdown – Or Both?
Even so, Myers notes that critics of the Trump administration (her script appears to tie the broader regulatory push back to that era) argue there isn’t enough data to justify the scale of the crackdown, beyond a handful of high-profile crashes.
Those critics say the push for tougher CDL rules and joint enforcement operations with ICE amount to an immigration crackdown by another name.
That concern isn’t completely unfounded.
When 242 people are referred to ICE and 82 drivers end up detained over their immigration status, the line between “safety operation” and “immigration sweep” gets blurry.
On the other hand, it’s impossible to ignore details like twelve commercial drivers with no license at all.
If you’re driving down I-65 with your kids in the backseat, you probably want that fixed yesterday.
The real tension is in the middle.
Enforcing basic safety – legal licenses, proper training, ability to read English road signs – is common sense.
But if enforcement is primarily happening through immigration arrests and high-profile stings, legal immigrant drivers may start to feel targeted simply for existing in the industry.
That could push some people further into the shadows rather than into compliance.
A Trucking Industry Under a Microscope
Taken together, the reporting from Shelby Myers and the commentary from Alex Mai paint a picture of an industry under intense scrutiny and stress.
On the road, drivers are dealing with a tough freight market, legal pressure, and now the fear of hitting a checkpoint that might end their career – or their ability to stay in the country.
In statehouses and agency offices, officials are trying to show they learned something from horrific crashes like the one in Thomasville.
They’re tightening training rules, aligning visas with licenses, and teaming up with ICE to make sure the people behind the wheel are who they say they are and know what they’re doing.
Some of that is overdue.
A trucker with no license, or a driver who can’t read critical warning signs, is an obvious danger.
The hard part is making sure “cracking down on bad actors,” as Colson puts it, doesn’t quietly expand into cracking down on anyone with an accent, a foreign passport, or a different last name.
For now, one thing is unmistakable.
As Mai told his viewers, Alabama is not playing.
And for every truck rolling down its highways, that reality is now part of the landscape – right alongside the weight limits, logbooks, and miles to the next fuel stop.
A former park ranger and wildlife conservationist, Lisa’s passion for survival started with her deep connection to nature. Raised on a small farm in northern Wisconsin, she learned how to grow her own food, raise livestock, and live off the land. Lisa is our dedicated Second Amendment news writer and also focuses on homesteading, natural remedies, and survival strategies. Lisa aims to help others live more sustainably and prepare for the unexpected.
