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Floor Speech

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Mr. BANKS. Mr. President, I came to the floor 2 weeks ago to speak about illegal immigrant truckdrivers causing chaos on our roads. Earlier this month, a father, his two sons, and a family friend were killed on an Indiana highway when an illegal immigrant swerved his semitruck right into them.

Two weeks ago, when I came to the floor to speak about this, I asked how many more people would have to die before we get serious about deporting illegal immigrants, and I am absolutely devastated that we now have one more name since I spoke here 2 weeks ago to add to that count. Tragically, just last week, another Hoosier was killed on an Indiana highway by an illegal immigrant truckdriver in a horrific accident. Terry Schultz was a 64-year-old man who was killed by an illegal immigrant from India when the illegal truckdriver reportedly ran a red light. Although the truckdriver is now in ICE custody, nothing can bring back Terry Schultz.

I am tired of coming to this floor and sharing the news about people being killed on Indiana roads because of illegal immigrants. This is the eighth Hoosier killed by an illegal immigrant on an Indiana road in just the last 6 months, that I know of, and the seventh because of illegal immigrant truckdrivers, specifically.

This is a national crisis, and I am sick of it. We need real accountability and a major overhaul of the system. Too much blood has already been stained on Indiana's roads. Things need to change, and they need to change now.

Last night, President Trump delivered an incredible State of the Union Address. One of the President's guests was a little girl named Delilah Coleman. When Delilah was just 5 years old, she suffered life- changing injuries caused by an illegal immigrant driving a semitruck in California, and it was the Democrat State of California that gave the illegal immigrant his commercial driver's license.

She is one of way too many people who have been hurt or killed by illegal immigrant truckers on our roads. Eight Hoosiers have been seriously injured--again, that is just what I know of--on Indiana roads by illegal immigrant drivers in the past 6 months. And that is just the eight that we know of.

Thank God Delilah, whom we saw last night up in the Gallery, is recovering well. In honor of Delilah, President Trump called on Congress to pass the Delilah Law, which would bar any State in the country from granting an illegal immigrant a commercial driver's license.

Many illegal immigrants cannot speak English or read the basic road signs. They have no business being on our roads, especially not behind the wheel of a semitruck.

Well, today, I am answering President Trump's call, and today, I am introducing the Delilah Law in the U.S. Senate. The Delilah Law not only bars States from giving CDLs to illegal immigrants, but it also revokes all trucking licenses that are currently issued to illegals and mandates that the CDL knowledge and skills tests are only given in English. This is common sense.

This will be a commonsense law, and I hope that we will get a chance to vote on it in the Senate very soon.

Another way that we can make our roads safer is by aggressively going after chameleon carriers that are employing illegal drivers. As I said 2 weeks ago, when I spoke on the floor about this, chameleon carriers are trucking companies that, after being shut down or heavily fined, just disguise themselves by changing their name or address or Department of Transportation number to continue operating.

It turns out that the trucking company that employed the illegal immigrant who killed those four people earlier this month in Jay County--they were four Amish men--was a company called AJ Partners. And they have been put out of service after it was investigated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and deemed a chameleon carrier. Since then, Secretary Sean Duffy and the Department of Transportation have shut down two other shady carriers connected to AJ Partners, as well as the sham school that helped the illegal immigrant get his CDL in the first place.

Last year, the Department of Transportation closed 7,500 sham commercial driver schools, known as CDL mills. The Department of Transportation has also placed 14,000 drivers out of service for English language proficiency violations. And I want to thank Secretary Duffy right here, right now, for his leadership. The Department of Transportation is cracking down, and what they are doing is making our roads safer because of it.

The carrier reportedly involved in the accident that killed Terry Schultz just last week was incorporated from an address in Greenwood, IN. That is the principal place of business for six other carriers. Six carriers at one address.

Earlier this week, I sent a letter to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and urged them to investigate carriers operating out of Greenwood and elsewhere in my home State. We need to know about chameleon carriers that are operating in Indiana and shut them down, and that is why, last week, my office announced the creation of the Truck Safety Tip Line. The tip line is for those who work in the trucking industry to report concerns about companies that are operating illegally, hiring drivers who can't read or speak English, and hiring drivers who are illegally in the country and without the proper licenses and documents. The tip line gives truckers and people working in the trucking industry a way to speak up when they see carriers that are breaking the law and putting lives at risk on the road.

Any reports that are submitted to the Truck Safety Tip Line will be reviewed and shared with the U.S. Department of Transportation and its Office of Inspector General to help protect roadway safety and ensure a fair and lawful trucking industry. But the job of keeping our roads safe depends on more than just government. We need everyone--but especially truckers--to help us out.

Look, Indiana sits at the crossroads of America. It is a proud slogan for our State. And as I said before, Indiana is the fifth busiest State in the country for commercial freight traffic. Each year, 724 million tons of freight travel through Indiana. The truckers who operate in Indiana and throughout the country keep our economy going and going strong. They help us get the food we eat and the clothes that we wear.

Over 90 percent of truckers in America voted in the 2024 election. They are patriotic and good people who love this country and care about what is going on in America. Law-abiding truckers care about law and order, and they are outraged by what is happening on our roads. They are tired of unsafe drivers and companies who hire illegal immigrants because they can pay them less and take good jobs away from hard- working Americans. Hard-working American truckers are tired of being turned away from jobs because carriers hire cheap foreign labor instead, and it shouldn't be this way.

So if you are a trucker and you have concerns about illegal trucking companies and practices, we want to hear from you. In fact, we need to hear from you. That is why I am encouraging truckers who are on the road or those who are in the business to visit our website, banks.senate.gov, where you can find the Truck Safety Tip Line in the top corner.

We can't wait any longer. We have to do everything that we can to deport illegal immigrants from this country and get them off of our roads. We cannot allow illegal immigrants to terrorize our roads and kill more innocent lives like we have seen happen over and over again. I can't tell you how many people I have heard from who have texted me recently and said that they are afraid to take their families on the road in their vehicle and drive on the highways because this keeps happening over and over again. It is a national crisis.

While Democrats continue to moan on and on about ICE, shutting down the Department of Homeland Security because of it, I will work to keep the people of Indiana safe from illegal immigrants, especially illegal immigrants who are behind the wheel of semitrucks.

The time to act is now. President Trump called on us to do something about this national crisis now. I hope that truckers will use the tip line to help keep our roads safe, and I hope that we will get to vote on the Delilah Law soon. It is long past time to do something about it. ______

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