Trucking Crisis: How ICE's Crackdown on Immigrant Drivers Is Crippling the Economy
Thousands of foreign-born truck drivers face deportation, deepening labor shortages and disrupting vital supply chains. This exclusive report explores the human impact of the ICE crackdown.
Trucking has long been the lifeblood of the American economy, with immigrant drivers playing a vital role in keeping goods and supplies moving across the nation. However, a recent crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now threatening to cripple this essential industry, as thousands of foreign-born truckers are being forced off the roads for failing English proficiency requirements.
After moving to Ohio in 2013, Ibragim Chakhalidze's father set up a trucking company just miles from where two of the country's major road freight arteries – the I-70 and the I-75 – meet. Formerly farmers who had come to the US from south-east Russia through a government refugee program, Chakhalidze says trucking has been in his family's and the wider Ahiska Turk community's blood for decades.
