The FMCSA’s New Rule Gets Safety Exactly Backwards

A new FMCSA rule claims to improve safety by restricting immigrant drivers — but ignores the data that actually predicts risk and does nothing to stop rising freight fraud.

By Heesham Naji | December 20, 2025

In September, the agency issued an interim rule that effectively bars most lawfully present, work-authorized immigrant drivers from obtaining or renewing non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses.

The rule limits eligibility to just three visa categories — H-2A, H-2B, and E-2 — while excluding refugees, asylees, DACA recipients, and hundreds of thousands of other federally authorized workers.

The justification? Safety.

The problem? There’s no data to support it.

These drivers pass the same CDL tests, meet the same medical standards, and comply with the same drug-and-alcohol protocols as every other commercial driver in America.

FMCSA’s own analysis admits the rule would force roughly 194,000 drivers — 97% of non-domiciled CDL holders — out of the freight market. Nowhere does the agency provide evidence that these drivers are less safe than anyone else.

Immigration status has never been a predictor of highway safety.

Unsafe driving scores, hours-of-service violations, and vehicle maintenance records are. That’s what CSA data measures. That’s what actually tells you whether a driver or carrier is a risk.

Meanwhile, the real threats to freight security — identity fraud, double brokering, stolen MCs, and fictitious pickups— continue to surge. Cargo theft is up 27% year over year.

The criminals stealing loads aren’t being stopped by visa category restrictions. They’re exploiting verification gaps that have nothing to do with immigration.

If FMCSA wants to improve safety, the path is clear:

Verify driver identity at pickup
Check compliance records
Monitor authority and safety data in real time

Scapegoating immigrant truckers who already meet every federal requirement isn’t a safety strategy.

It’s a distraction from the verification failures that are actually costing the industry billions.

The D.C. Circuit has paused the rule while courts evaluate whether FMCSA overstepped its authority. In the meantime, roughly one in five long-haul drivers — many of them Sikh Americans who have driven safely for years — are facing harassment, profiling, and uncertainty about their livelihoods.