OhPleaseJustQuit
Diamond Member
- Jul 27, 2021
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Trump is cracking down on foreign 18-wheel truck drivers who cant speak English
- Thread starter Mac-7
- Start date
/----/Who's going to pick our cotton?
Who's going to pick our fruit?
Who's going to drive our truck?
OhPleaseJustQuit
Diamond Member
- Jul 27, 2021
- 77,086
- 90,776
- 3,488
JoeB131
Diamond Member
If we were bringing truck drivers over here in chains, you might have a point.
If they come here voluntarily to do jobs Americans don't want to do, then no, it isn't slavery.
Use what little brains God gave you.
/----/ "If we were bringing truck drivers over here in chains, you might have a point."
They are.
The specific scenario is a well-documented phenomenon known as debt bondage (or bonded labor), and it represents a significant portion of labor trafficking cases in the United States.
To understand how this operates, analysts look at the intersection of two distinct but frequently overlapping criminal enterprises: human smuggling and human trafficking.
1. The Intersection of Smuggling and Trafficking
While the terms are often used interchangeably in public discourse, international and U.S. laws separate them by intent and consent:
- Human Smuggling: A transaction where a migrant voluntarily pays a smuggler (often associated with cartels or transnational criminal networks) to facilitate unauthorized entry across a national border. Once the border is crossed, the transaction theoretically ends.
- Human Trafficking: The recruitment, harboring, or transportation of a person using force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation (labor or commercial sex).
The crossover happens when a migrant cannot afford the high upfront costs of smuggling—which frequently range from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. Smugglers or affiliated labor brokers will offer to finance the journey, under the agreement that the migrant will pay it off upon arrival in the U.S.
2. How Debt Bondage is Enforced
Traffickers rarely rely on physical locks and keys to keep migrants working. Instead, they use highly effective psychological and financial leverage:- Inflated Debts: The initial cost of transportation is systematically inflated. Traffickers continuously add exorbitant fees for substandard housing, food, tools, and "interest," ensuring the debt is mathematically impossible to pay off.
- Coercion and Threats: Traffickers exploit the migrants' lack of legal status, threatening to report them or their families to immigration authorities (such as ICE) if they stop working or complain.
Violence and Retaliation: Explicit threats of violence are directed not just at the migrant, but at their family members back in their home country, where the criminal networks maintain a physical presence. - Document Confraction: Passports, IDs, and visas are routinely confiscated upon arrival to strip the individual of mobility.
3. Sectors Most Affected in the U.S.
Agriculture: Seasonal harvesting and farm work.
- Hospitality & Food Service: Restaurant kitchens, hotel housekeeping, and commercial cleaning.
Construction & Landscaping: Day labor and roofing crews. - Domestic Work: In-home caregiving and nannying, where workers are deeply isolated.
4. Policy and Enforcement Challenges
From an analytical standpoint, addressing this issue is incredibly difficult for several reasons:- Underreporting: Victims are highly distrustful of law enforcement due to language barriers, fear of immediate deportation, and the psychological trauma inflicted by their captors.
Complex Supply Chains: Many large corporations utilize multi-tiered subcontracting agencies for logistics, cleaning, or harvesting. This opacity allows traffickers to hide exploitative operations a few layers removed from the primary brand. - Legal Protections: While the U.S. offers specific protections—like the T Visa, which allows victims of human trafficking to remain in the U.S. if they assist law enforcement—the process of identifying victims and prosecuting traffickers remains a bottlenecked and complex legal hurdle.
I respect truckers. We can increase our railroad transportation of products and have more truckers driving locally instead of nationally. A healthy investment in improving, renovating and building new railroad tracks even with conventional means would be good.Um, okay.
We already have a trucking shortage in this country, let's make that situation worse.
Addressing the U.S. Truck Driver Shortage: The Role of Foreign-Born Drivers, Visa Policy, and Supply Chain Impacts - National Immigration Forum
Update: A new federal rule that took effect on March 16, 2026, prohibits asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients from obtaining or renewing commercial driver’s licenses,meaning existing licenses will expire without renewal and potentially remove up to 200,000 drivers from the workforce...forumtogether.org
The United States depends on its trucking workforce to keep goods moving across the country. According to the American Trucking Associations’ trends report, trucks moved 11.27 billion tons of freight in 2024, accounting for 67% of surface trade between the U.S. and Canada, making the industry an indispensable part of the economy. Yet the sector faces a persistent and growing shortage of truck drivers. In 2025, industry estimates placed the gap at between 60,000 and 80,000 drivers. This shortage has significant implications for supply chains and could lead to inflationary pressure.
Foreign-born drivers have been instrumental in addressing these labor gaps, accounting for nearly one in six U.S. truck drivers. However, recent policy changes — including the U.S. Department of State’s pause on visa issuance for foreign-born commercial drivers and an executive order mandating changes to the government’s guidance on English language proficiency for truck drivers — threaten to worsen the shortage.
The U.S. trucking industry has long benefited from immigrant labor. Between 2000 and 2021, the number of foreign-born truckers more than doubled, rising from 316,000 to over 720,000 drivers. Today, about 18% of U.S. truck drivers are foreign-born. These workers not only fill labor shortages but also bring critical skills and experience, often acquired in their countries of origin. Their contributions are especially visible in long-haul and regional freight sectors, which face higher turnover and recruitment challenges.
Foreign-born truckers play an outsized role in stabilizing supply chains. With an aging workforce — the average age of drivers of heavy trucks is 47 — and declining interest from younger workers, the industry increasingly relies on immigrant drivers to meet demand. In some regions, particularly along the southern border and in metropolitan areas, immigrant drivers represent an even larger share of the trucking workforce. Without them, existing supply chain bottlenecks are likely to become even more severe.
Admiral Rockwell Tory
Diamond Member
Yeah, you have to be in the chAir Force to a job where you sit down more often than a truck driver!
BTW, your dementia is flaring again there Methusaleh!
Admiral Rockwell Tory
Diamond Member
The AI/robots will soon be driving those trucks.
JoeB131
Diamond Member
Funny, with all the people Orange Hitler is rounding up, none of them ever claim they were trafficked, and thank God they are being sent home.
What I do see is Spary-Tan Stalin trying his best to revoke asylum and protection claims for people getting away from awful governments.
Spare me your right-wing wank fantasies where you try to paint your racism as a virtue.
I'd have no problem going after the (mostly conservative) white people who hire undocumented immigrants.
/-----
Nor would you if you valued your life and your family's life.
/ ----/ " none of them ever claim they were trafficked,"
Nor would you if you valued your life and your family's life.
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