Indiana Senator Takes Action Against Illegal Truckers After Four More Deaths

When Common Sense Becomes Controversial

Senator Jim Banks just did something that shouldn’t need doing. He launched a tip line Tuesday for Americans to report truck drivers who are here illegally, lack proper authorization, or can’t read English well enough to navigate our highways safely. The fact that this is necessary tells you everything about how far we’ve fallen.

Three Americans dead in Florida. Four more killed in Indiana just days ago. These aren’t statistics. They’re people who woke up one morning, went about their lives, and never made it home because state governments decided immigration laws and safety standards were optional.

Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India, got his commercial driver’s license in California under Governor Gavin Newsom’s watch. He killed three people. Bekzhan Beishekeev from Kyrgyzstan received his CDL in Pennsylvania under Governor Josh Shapiro. He killed four in Banks’ home state. The Biden administration let him into the country. Pennsylvania gave him the keys to an 80,000-pound weapon.

You know what’s haunting about this? Every single one of these deaths was preventable.

The Numbers Don’t Lie, But Politicians Do

Here’s where it gets worse. Banks reports that 50 percent of CDLs issued in New York alone were done improperly. Half. The federal government estimates 200,000 illegal drivers are on U.S. roads right now. That’s not a rounding error. That’s a policy choice.

Think about what a commercial driver’s license represents. It’s not permission to drive to the grocery store. It’s certification that you can safely operate a vehicle that weighs as much as a small house, travels at highway speeds, and requires split-second decisions that can mean life or death for everyone around you. When you’re barreling down I-70 with your kids in the backseat, you trust that the semi in the next lane is driven by someone who understands road signs, traffic laws, and basic English commands from law enforcement.

That trust has been violated by states more concerned with virtue signaling than protecting their citizens.

The thing about commercial trucks is they don’t stay in one state. A fraudulent CDL issued in California or Pennsylvania becomes every American’s problem the moment that driver crosses state lines. Lax enforcement in blue states kills people in red states. Failed immigration policy in Washington becomes a local tragedy in Indiana, Florida, or wherever that truck happens to be when things go wrong.

Indiana Is the Crossroads, and the Crosshairs

Banks put it plainly. “Indiana is the Crossroads of America and Hoosiers are getting killed because drivers who shouldn’t be here in the first place are behind the wheel.” He’s right. If you’re going to drive a truck on our roads, you need to be here legally, you need to read traffic signs, and you need to understand the basic rules that keep everyone alive.

This isn’t complicated. It’s not xenophobic to expect that someone operating heavy machinery on public roads meets basic safety and legal requirements. It’s not hateful to suggest that immigration laws exist for a reason. It’s not unreasonable to demand that state governments stop prioritizing political posturing over public safety.

The previous administration’s border policies created this mess. Catch and release. Minimal vetting. Sanctuary city nonsense that treated immigration enforcement like a moral failing instead of a legal necessity. Now Americans are paying for those failures with their lives.

What happens next matters. Banks’ tip line is a start, but it’s a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound. We need states to stop issuing CDLs to people who aren’t legally authorized to work in this country. We need the federal government to enforce immigration laws that already exist. We need prosecutors to hold accountable the bureaucrats who rubber-stamp applications they know are fraudulent.

Most of all, we need to remember the names of the people who died because their government failed them. They deserved better. Their families deserved better. And every American on the road today deserves the assurance that the person driving that semi next to them earned their license legitimately and belongs in this country legally.

That’s not too much to ask. It’s the bare minimum we should expect. The fact that it’s become controversial says everything about how broken our system has become.