In the wake of Minnesota’s massive fraud scheme busts, some states have started questioning what’s going on within their own borders. In Montana, Commissioner of Insurance and State Auditor James Brown’s curiosity spurred him to do some digging, and what he found made his jaw drop.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn sits down with Brown to expose the massive Obamacare fraud scheme he recently uncovered in Montana.

“It’s bad,” Brown says of the scandal. “This is government at its worst. It's human nature at its worst.”

Under Obamacare, members of federally recognized Native American tribes can sign up for Marketplace health insurance plans anytime (not just during open enrollment), often with little or no out-of-pocket costs.

“This scheme involved targeting at-risk Native Americans who live on reservations in Montana, fraudulently enrolling them on Obamacare, then physically transporting them across state lines, which is, as you know, human trafficking, and then billing our insurance company for rehab treatments that did not take place or were unnecessary or performed at greatly inflated costs,” Brown explains.

“And then what would happen is these Native Americans who were targeted then were just dumped out on the streets in Arizona and Southern California.”

“Why were they taken across state lines?” Glenn asks.

Brown explains that a lack of “proper oversight” in places like Los Angeles and Phoenix enabled fraudsters to exploit the Affordable Care Act’s strong protections for mental health and addiction treatment. Under those federal parity laws, insurers are required to cover rehab the same as regular medical care — even from out-of-state providers — allowing distant rehab facilities to rake in large sums of money from fake or inflated bills.

Glenn follows up with the obvious: How much money are we talking here?

“Fifty million with an M in fraud committed through this scheme,” says Brown, adding that the good news is this awareness has allowed his office to prevent another “23.3 million” from being stolen.

But money is only half the horror.

“There's 200 Native Americans that have probably been victimized by this,” says Brown.

However because his jurisdiction is limited to the Montana border, and much of this fraud is taking place outside state lines, he is heavily reliant on the feds for prosecutions.

“Are they actively pursuing this?” Glenn asks.

“The Trump administration has been very helpful on the CMS side, which is the federal agency that administers Obamacare. They've been very active in working with us to make sure these fraudulent payments stop,” says Brown. “Not so much luck so far on the criminal prosecution side, but we are working on that.”

To hear more details about the massive fraud schemes uncovered in Montana, watch the full interview above.

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Liberal media spins 'homicide' narrative after ICE detainee death — but DHS sets the record straight

A detainee died after attempting to take his own life while in federal immigration custody at a detention facility in El Paso, Texas, according to the Department of Homeland Security. But that was not what the Washington Post and other liberal outlets originally reported.

On Thursday evening, WaPo shared an article on social media, reporting that a local medical examiner might soon classify the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at the Camp East Montana facility on January 3 as a "homicide" and that another detainee had witnessed the man being "choked to death by guards."

During the intervention, Campos 'violently resisted' staff and continued trying to harm himself, the DHS said.

The DHS offered a different version of events.

The DHS described Campos as a criminal illegal alien and a convicted child sex predator. Agency officials said detention security staff immediately intervened when Campos attempted suicide.

During the intervention, Campos "violently resisted" staff and continued trying to harm himself, the DHS said. In the ensuing struggle, Campos "stopped breathing and lost consciousness." Medical personnel were called to the scene and attempted resuscitation before emergency medical technicians pronounced him dead at the facility.

ICE said it takes the health and safety of all detainees seriously and that the incident remains under active investigation, adding that more details "are forthcoming."

Blaze News reached out to the Washington Post for comment.

ICE CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

According to the DHS, Campos was arrested by immigration authorities July 14, 2025, during a planned enforcement operation in Rochester, New York.

The DHS said he entered the United States in 1996 and has since been convicted of multiple felonies such as sexual contact with a child under 11, criminal possession of a weapon, reckless driving, possession of a controlled substance, and sale of a controlled substance.

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

An immigration judge ordered Campos removed from the United States on March 1, 2005. The DHS said he was not removed at that time because the government was unable to obtain the necessary travel documents. ICE later transferred him to the Camp East Montana detention facility on Sept. 6, 2025.

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When institutions close ranks, history intervenes

I live in Madison County, Montana. Long before cable panels debated corruption and accountability, this place learned a hard lesson about what happens when government goes bad.

In the 1860s, Bannack served as the territorial capital of Montana. Henry Plummer was its elected sheriff. He wore the badge, swore the oath ... and built the gallows.

Healthy institutions correct themselves. Unhealthy ones protect themselves. Madison County learned that lesson the hard way. Minnesota is confronting it now.

And according to many who lived here at the time, he also ran the crime.

Plummer and his deputies were accused of leading a gang of road agents who robbed and murdered travelers hauling gold through these mountains. Stagecoaches were ambushed. Men vanished. Fear became routine. Complaints led nowhere. The law appeared to be shielding the very violence it existed to stop.

So the citizens acted.

In 1864, a vigilance committee arrested Plummer and two of his deputies. No formal trial followed. No appeals. The man who built the gallows was hanged on them.

Historians still debate Plummer’s guilt. They do not debate why the vigilantes emerged. People believed government had become part of the threat rather than the safeguard. When authority no longer restrained crime, citizens concluded that authority itself required restraint.

That story unsettles. It should. But it is real, and it matters now.

The distance between frontier Montana and modern Minnesota is not as wide as we might like to think.

Minnesota is now reckoning with one of the largest public-assistance fraud scandals in American history. Billions of taxpayer dollars intended to feed children and support vulnerable families were siphoned through nonprofits that faced minimal oversight and little urgency to address obvious red flags.

Warnings surfaced early. Audits flagged problems. But the payments continued anyway.

It was a prolonged, systemic failure, not a single clever con.

Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images

As the scope became clearer, more voices spoke up. Questions multiplied. The alarms grew louder. Yet the machinery kept moving. Oversight failed to halt the flow of money in real time. Accountability arrived only after exposure, not before.

For many watching, the most disturbing fact was not that warnings existed but that raising them changed nothing.

Imagine a medical provider entrusted with managing a patient’s pain. The patient is vulnerable, dependent, unable to advocate fully. Now imagine discovering that the provider has been siphoning the medication, not to heal, but to feed a personal addiction.

The first problem is theft.

The deeper problem is betrayal.

The most dangerous problem involves everyone who noticed and did nothing.

That provider violates something fundamental. So does a government that tolerates corruption while presenting itself as a caretaker.

This summer, America turns 250. There will be speeches, reenactments, and familiar lines from the Declaration of Independence. We will hear again about equality, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those words deserve their place.

But Americans have developed a habit of quoting the Declaration selectively.

“All men are created equal” fits neatly on a bumper sticker. The context Thomas Jefferson supplied fits less comfortably. He warned about power, corruption, and the responsibility citizens bear when government betrays its charge.

The founders did not merely announce ideals. They warned about consequences.

They wrote that governments exist to secure rights and that “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.” That sentence is often cited. The one that follows rarely is: “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.”

These were not men eager for upheaval. They understood that stability is precious and easily lost.

But they continued, warning that when “a long train of abuses and usurpations” reveals a consistent design toward despotism, resistance becomes not merely permissible but necessary.

The prophet Jeremiah put the problem bluntly: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images

That realism about human nature runs through both scripture and the Declaration. The framers carried it forward into the Constitution. They assumed power would be abused. They assumed ambition would seek advantage. They assumed virtue would require reinforcement.

So they divided authority, erected checks and balances, and made corruption harder rather than trusting leaders to be better.

Vigilance was the price of liberty. When a people become absorbed in the pursuit of happiness and neglect the pursuit of accountability, history intervenes.

In this Montana county, the story of Sheriff Plummer serves as a reminder of what happens when authority receives blind trust and accountability arrives too late.

The lesson does not praise vigilantism. Vigilantism signals collapse, not health. When citizens feel forced outside lawful systems, failure has already occurred upstream.

Unchecked corruption creates pressure that does not dissipate on its own. Healthy institutions correct themselves. Unhealthy ones protect themselves.

Madison County learned that lesson the hard way. Minnesota is confronting it now. America itself may be closer than we care to admit.

Every summer, tourists pass through this county on their way to Yellowstone National Park. In Virginia City, students retell the story of Sheriff Plummer, often dressed in Old West attire, offering visitors a taste of frontier drama.

The story feels safely distant. A relic of a rougher age.

But news from Minnesota sounds less like reporting and more like repetition.

A century from now, what story will students tell about Minnesota?

Then, as now, theft was dismissed. Warnings were minimized. Institutions protected themselves rather than correcting themselves. Trust eroded quietly before it collapsed publicly.

Corruption ignored does not remain contained. Betrayal tolerated becomes precedent. Institutions that refuse correction eventually lose consent.

History shows what follows. When authority protects itself instead of the public, legitimacy erodes quietly, then collapses suddenly. By the time citizens reach for drastic remedies, lawful ones have already failed.

Madison County learned that lesson in blood and with rope. Minnesota is learning it through audits and indictments. The difference is only the stage of decay.

History does not repeat itself as theater forever. When its warnings go unheeded, it returns as judgment.

The courage we lost is hiding in the simplest places

If you’ll indulge one more cabin story, it’s only because remodeling an unlevel structure may be the clearest metaphor for the challenges caregivers face — and, I suspect, for the condition of America itself.

Out here in rural Montana, you learn quickly that when a project needs doing, you can pay a lot for it, wait a long time, use duct tape, or learn to do it yourself. Usually it’s some combination of the four. And while I’ve adapted to that reality, certain home-improvement tasks still give me the willies — mainly anything with a blade spinning fast enough to launch lumber toward Yellowstone National Park.

There is something life-giving about facing the hard thing in front of us instead of avoiding it.

Who knew you needed a helmet to cut boards?

I’ve been a pianist longer than I’ve been a caregiver, and since my hands pay the bills, I prefer to keep all my fingers intact. Let’s just say that when it comes to carpentry, I can really play the piano.

Recently we removed an old door in our cabin and needed to rebuild the wall. Help was delayed, so I decided to tackle it myself. The wall wasn’t the problem. The miter saw was. When I noticed the blade catching the afternoon light, it looked downright smug.

It knew.

Still I’ve met many builders in our county, and only one is missing a finger. Thankfully none answer to “Lefty.” If they can keep their body parts, maybe I can too. My rule is simple: Measure 17 times, cut once — and do it slowly.

So I got to work. In an old cabin nothing is plumb, so my level and I argued for quite a while. Even so, the studs went in, something close to square took shape, and despite a few caregiving interruptions, the wall was framed by sundown.

I was proud of myself. I took pictures. I bragged a little. Some builders may roll their eyes, but I’d do the same if they bragged about playing “Chopsticks.”

But it wasn’t really the blade. It was the fear behind it — the fear of getting something wrong, of creating a problem I couldn't undo. And that fear isn’t limited to carpentry. When we let fear or anxiety keep us from picking up the tool and learning, whole parts of our lives remain unfinished.

We live in half-built cabins — studs exposed, projects stalled, confidence untested because we never moved toward the thing that intimidates us.

America was built by people who weren’t afraid to try hard things. They carved farms out of wilderness. Built railroads with crude tools. Raised barns without safety manuals. When something broke, they fixed it; when they didn’t know how, they learned anyway. Imperfectly, but persistently.

That spirit carried us for generations. Today we struggle to find it.

We’ve created a culture that treats effort as optional and discomfort as a crisis. We warn people not to push themselves. We offer labels and excuses instead of encouragement. We outsource everything, including our resilience. Hard things are treated as unsafe instead of character-building.

Many believe our greatest dangers are political, economic, or global. Maybe. But something quieter may be worse: We are losing the courage to try.

I say that as someone who has spent 40 years as a caregiver. Disease, trauma, addiction, aging — none of it yields to effort or skill. Day after day, fighting a battle you cannot win wears down confidence. Caregiving rarely gives you the satisfaction of a finished job or something tangible you can hold in your hands.

kudou via iStock/Getty Images

But tackling something you can finish, even if it makes the hair on your neck stand up, pushes back against that erosion of self-reliance. There is courage in doing the thing we’d rather avoid. When we take on something small but intimidating, we rediscover a steadiness we thought we’d lost — not bravado, not swagger, just the quiet certainty that we can still learn, grow, and accomplish something in a world that feels increasingly out of control.

And sometimes the payoff is simple. It’s something you can point to. That framed doorway in my cabin isn’t perfect, but it stands as proof that I stepped toward something unfamiliar and did it anyway. In a culture that avoids discomfort, even one small visible victory becomes fuel for courage. It tells you that you can do the next thing too.

As Emerson put it, a person who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life. There is something life-giving about facing the hard thing in front of us instead of avoiding it.

That is the spirit America needs again — not bluster or political chest-thumping, but ordinary people choosing to try the hard thing right in front of them.

I will probably always be nervous around saws, but that doorway reminds me that courage often appears in the quiet places where we decide to try.

And there is absolutely no shame in wearing a helmet.

The left’s vile rhetoric just keeps getting darker

Democrats are learning all the wrong lessons from where their vile rhetoric has gotten them — and Nancy Pelosi’s latest outburst is only the latest proof.

In a recent CNN interview, Pelosi called Donald Trump “a vile creature” and “the worst thing on the face of the earth," before backing up her claim with virtually nothing.

“He’s just a vile creature. The worst thing on the face of the earth, but anyway,” Pelosi told the interviewer.

“You think he’s the worst thing on the face of the earth?” the interviewer asked.

“Yeah, I do, because he’s the president of the United States, and he does not honor the Constitution of the United States,” Pelosi replied.

“Really, Nancy? You couldn’t think of one single solitary thing that’s worse than a president who believes in things like freedom and liberty, and, you know, smaller government and lower taxes? That’s really the worst thing in the world to you?” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales responds on "Sara Gonzales Unfiltered."

“These people are so incredible in their myopic thinking. I really wonder how they’re going to cope when Donald Trump is out of politics,” she adds.

Pelosi’s assertion that Donald Trump is “the worst thing on the face of the earth” is the kind of rhetoric that has led many Democrats to speak similarly to any Republican voter or official, as is evidenced in one recent case out of Montana.

After voting for Trump’s big, beautiful bill, freshman Senator of Montana Tim Sheehy (R) received an alarming voicemail from Haley McKnight, a woman running for the Helena city commission.

“I just wanted to let you know that you are the most insufferable kind of coward and thief. You just stripped away health care for 17 million Americans. And I hope you’re really proud of that. I hope that one day you get pancreatic cancer and it spreads throughout your body so fast that they can’t even treat you for it,” McKnight said in the warm, friendly voicemail.

“I hope that you die in the street like a dog. One day, you’re going to live to regret this. I hope that your children never forgive you. I hope that you are infertile. I hope you never manage to get a boner ever again. You are the worst piece of s**t I’ve ever, ever, ever had the misfortune of looking at, and you don’t serve Montanans. You serve your own private interests,” she continued.

“God forbid that you ever meet me on the streets, because I will make you regret it. F**k you. I hope you die,” she added, for good measure.

Apparently, McKnight doubled down when asked about the voicemail, calling it justifiable rage.

“Did she have this all mapped out on a piece of paper, or did she just fly in there blind?” Gonzales asks, shocked.

“This woman is running for office,” she adds.

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23 attorneys general call on EPA's Lee Zeldin to defund radical climate science institute

Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has been an instrumental figure in dismantling the climate science regime during the second Trump administration, including major funding cuts in partnership with the Department of Government Efficiency. Now, nearly half of the states' attorneys general have called on Zeldin to strike at the head of another climate institution: the Environmental Law Institute.

Headed by Attorney General Austin Knudsen of Montana and signed by 22 other state AGs, the letter calls on Zeldin to cut funding grants for the Environmental Law Institute, which operates the Climate Judiciary Project.

'The Environmental Law Institute's Climate Judiciary Project is using woke climate propaganda, under the guise of what they call "neutral" education, to persuade judges and push their wildly unpopular agenda through the court system.'

The letter says that ELI "received approximately 13% of its revenue in 2023 and 8.4% in 2024" from federal grants and appears to expect this funding to continue, according to its financial records.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

"As attorney general, I refuse to stand by while Americans' tax dollars fund radical environmental training for judges across the country. The Environmental Law Institute's Climate Judiciary Project is using woke climate propaganda, under the guise of what they call 'neutral' education, to persuade judges and push their wildly unpopular agenda through the court system," Knudsen said in a statement obtained by Blaze News.

The Climate Judiciary Project, the letter continues, has a clear mission: "Lobby judges in order to make climate change policy through the courts."

The Climate Judiciary Project claims it "is a first-of-its-kind effort that provides judges with authoritative, objective, and trusted education on climate science, the impacts of climate change, and the ways climate science is arising in the law. Since its creation in 2018, the Climate Judiciary Project estimates that it has hosted more than 50 events and trained more than 2,000 judges."

The revelations about ELI make clear that it is not shy about political lobbying.

Jason Isaac, the CEO of the American Energy Institute, said in a statement obtained by Blaze News: "Its curriculum is developed by climate alarmist allies of the plaintiffs and delivered to judges behind closed doors. Public funds should never be used to finance political advocacy disguised as judicial education."

Many supporters of this move have cited legal and ethical concerns as well as issues with consumer protection. "As we have long warned, the left has a plan to reshape American society by using lawsuits in courts all across the country, especially in places like Hawaii and other coastal enclaves. The new wave of revelations about ELI is further concerning evidence of how committed the left is to imposing mandatory Progressive Lifestyle Choices through this courtroom maneuvering and how big a threat it really is to all our ways of life," O.H. Skinner, the executive director of Alliance for Consumers, said.

The letter was signed by the attorneys general of Montana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The signatories are calling on Zeldin to have the EPA "cancel any on-going grants to ELI and ensure that ELI does not receive any future grants while it is sponsoring the Climate Judiciary Project."

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American trucking at a crossroads: Deadly crash involving illegal alien exposes true cost of Biden’s border invasion

An underreported safety and national security crisis within America's trucking industry is now gaining national attention after an illegal alien semi-truck driver has been accused of killing several people in Florida earlier this month.

Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old Indian national, was arrested after he jackknifed his truck while allegedly making an illegal U-turn on August 12, crushing a minivan and killing everyone in the vehicle.

Singh obtained his commercial driver's license in California despite facing pending immigration proceedings after he crossed illegally into the U.S. in 2018. The first Trump administration had fast-tracked Singh for deportation, but he was later released when he told immigration officials he was afraid to be deported back to India.

The recent tragic incident received national attention and highlighted how former President Joe Biden's open-border immigration policies contributed to significant and overlooked issues within America's trucking industry, including road safety concerns, declining wages, and broader national security risks that could take years to address.

Shannon Everett with American Truckers United has raised concerns about the effects of lowered driver qualifications for foreign nationals, which were justified by claims of an industry staffing crisis.

'I feel that this could be the biggest national security threat to the homeland that nobody is covering.’

Everett told Blaze News that many new drivers are foreign-born, having obtained their CDLs after seeking asylum and receiving employment authorization documents.

According to the Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, nonresident foreign nationals can qualify for non-domiciled CDLs. Exceptions include Canadian and Mexican nationals, who must instead obtain a license from their home country, as the FMCSA has determined that the licensing standards in those countries meet its requirements.

Cole Stevens, the chief strategy officer for Stevens Trucking Co., similarly warned about the "massive increase in non-domiciled CDLs nationwide and CDL fraud," stating that the current trucking industry ecosystem is "gutting the American trucking companies one by one."

"We have definitely seen mass casualty events happening more frequently than ever before," he told Blaze News. "Unvetted, untrained, and sometimes incapable of communicating/reading English road signs is a recipe for disaster."

Photo by Matt Mills McKnight/Getty Images

The ultimate cost

The lack of proper vetting in favor of "rampant labor dumping" has reportedly led to an increase in fatal accidents.

American Truckers United shared a chart tracking the trend of large-truck-involved fatal crashes from 2008 to 2022.

The group noted that in 2016, the Obama administration's FMCSA issued a memorandum removing the requirement to place drivers out of service for lack of English proficiency, which subsequently appeared to lead to an increase in accidents. From 2008 to 2015, the annual number of truck-involved fatal crashes peaked at 4,089. In contrast, from 2016 to 2023, the lowest annual number of truck-involved fatal crashes was 4,562, reaching a maximum of 5,873 in 2022.

‘We keep putting profit ahead of life, and I'm now a widow because of that.’

A heartbreaking incident exemplified this alarming trend in June 2024, when a semi-truck driver lost control of his vehicle on Colorado's Highway 285, resulting in the death of Scott Miller, 64, a husband, father, and grandfather.

The driver's semi-truck, which was transporting steel pipes, collided with the car in front of it, causing the truck to jackknife. The straps securing the truck's cargo failed, and the pipes fell onto Miller's vehicle, instantly crushing and killing him.

The driver of the truck was Ignacio Cruz Mendoza, a Mexican national who was illegally in the U.S. and did not hold a valid CDL at the time of the crash. Cruz Mendoza had been removed or voluntarily left the U.S. 16 times prior to the tragedy. After he spent just eight months of his year-long sentence in prison for the fatal accident, Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed Crus Mendoza from the country.

Photo by RJ Sangosti/Denver Post via Getty Images

The victim, Scott Miller, a commercial truck driver himself, and his wife, Deann Miller, previously operated their own trucking company hauling water.

Deann Miller rejected claims of a staffing shortage in the trucking industry, arguing that many qualified American drivers are willing to work, but some companies are cutting corners by hiring non-domiciled drivers to save costs.

"Truckers make good money, and they didn't want to pay that," she told Blaze News. "These companies are putting profit over lives."

"We're allowing [foreign nationals] to come in with whatever license they claim they had from their country," Miller continued. "Our truck drivers are held to a much higher standard, and they go through special schooling."

Miller explained that driving large trucks is "a skilled profession," especially in mountainous areas where drivers must know how to downshift correctly, as brakes alone cannot stop an 80,000-pound truck traveling downhill.

‘This is not even an issue for the trucking industry. This is a national security issue.’

Miller told Blaze News that there is another underreported aspect to the story: slave labor.

"These companies and corporations are bringing people over from China, Africa, Russia, Mexico, all over the place, and they're promising them good wages and a place to live. What's actually happening is these drivers are literally living out of their trucks because the trucking companies are only paying them minimum wage," she said.

Miller refuses to let her husband's death be in vain. She is advocating for mountain endorsements for truck drivers and a return to manned roadside weigh stations and inspection stops.

"We should have stops at the bottom of every mountain road and make sure every truck is assessed before it's alone on these mountain bypasses," she added. "But that's money — tax dollars. But what's more important: money or life? We keep putting profit ahead of life, and I'm now a widow because of that."

"My husband lost his life," Miller said. "And I lost my life the day my husband died. ... He was my best friend. We did everything together. I don't have my best friend any more."

Rebecca Noble/Bloomberg via Getty Images

National security risks

The increase in loosely vetted foreign nationals entering the trucking workforce after crossing the border has also sparked concerns about national security.

Raman Dhillon, CEO of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association, has called the alleged driver shortage a myth that has been used to justify relaxed driver requirements.

Dhillon stated that he warned the Biden administration that there would be "a crisis coming" due to the surge in foreign nationals crossing the border and entering the trucking industry with little industry experience.

"This is not even an issue for the trucking industry. This is a national security issue," he declared.

The Transportation Security Administration issued a report in 2017, warning about the increased number of global "ramming attacks" by terrorists.

‘Non-domiciled CDL issuance represents a growing trend for which no one has yet fully accounted.’

"Commercial vehicles — distinguished by their large size, weight, and carrying capacity — present an especially attractive mechanism for vehicle ramming attacks because of the ease with which they can penetrate security barriers and the large-scale damage they can inflict on people and infrastructure," the report read.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stated in April that the National Counterterrorism Center identified 600 people with terrorism ties who entered the U.S. illegally, claimed asylum, and were paroled by the Biden administration.

American Truckers United argued, "The American people DESERVE to know: Were some of these 600 individuals issued Non-Domicile CDLs, giving them access to operate massive commercial trucks on our roads? This is a NATIONAL SECURITY CRISIS! Demand transparency NOW!"

Stevens called this possibility the "ultimate Trojan horse that nobody is talking about."

"I feel that this could be the biggest national security threat to the homeland that nobody is covering," Stevens told Blaze News. "Every non-domiciled license I have seen has been under the age of 42, most in their 20s."

Stevens noted that the average age of American truck drivers is roughly 51 years old.

"I haven't seen a single one over that age for the foreign drivers/licenses that have been issued since COVID. Something is off, right?" he questioned.

Last year, two illegal aliens, Jordanian nationals, were arrested after they allegedly attempted to breach Marine Corps Base Quantico. The men reportedly posed as Amazon delivery drivers and, failing to provide proper credentials, tried to drive their box truck onto the base anyway before they were stopped by guards who deployed vehicle denial barriers.

The incident sparked concerns about a potential terrorist plot, though those claims were never substantiated.

How we got here

Although Canada and Mexico are the only two countries with CDL reciprocity agreements with the U.S., the FMCSA can issue temporary waivers, valid up to 90 days, or exemptions, valid up to two years, that allow foreign drivers from other countries to operate within the U.S.

A July report from Overdrive attempted to answer whether there has been a recent increase in non-domiciled CDL issuance across the United States. The outlet noted that determining the number of issued licenses was difficult because there is no universal tracking system, and several states that issue these CDLs do not track their own data either.

"Overdrive found just seven states that don't issue CDLs to noncitizens with work authorization; 11 states do issue non-domiciled CDLs but can't readily produce data about them; and 32 states ultimately did provide numbers. Among the states that didn't provide data, six said they would have to pay a contractor to produce the data, and two offered no response at all," the report read.

Despite missing data, Overdrive estimated that there are more than 60,000 active non-domiciled CDLs currently in the country. The report stated that "non-domiciled CDL issuance has increased quickly among the majority of states that provided data," noting that Louisiana issued only 20 in 2021 and jumped to 172 in 2024.

"Non-domiciled CDL issuance represents a growing trend for which no one has yet fully accounted," Overdrive concluded.

Everett told Blaze News that non-domiciled CDLs are primarily issued in California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Montana, Texas, and Florida.

"They are not vetting these drivers," he warned, adding that in some instances, CDLs have been issued to individuals who have provided inaccurate birthdate information or failed to submit their full names.

Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Biden-Harris Administration Trucking Action Plan further exacerbated issues within the industry by "reduc[ing] barriers to drivers getting CDLs" and providing states with funds and guidance to "expedite licensing."

As part of the administration's attempt to address the alleged staffing shortage in the trucking industry, it threw millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded grants at training schools.

However, an increase in pop-up CDL mills appeared to follow the federal government's financial support.

In May, reports emerged that a trucking academy with branches in Washington and Oregon had been accused of bribing an independent state tester with cash-filled envelopes to pass its students. The school advertised teaching driving classes in Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, and Turkish.

And this is not an isolated instance; there are several recent cases involving similar alleged CDL fraud schemes.

Authorities in Florida arrested eight individuals, including two Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles employees, for their alleged participation in a scheme that involved selling thousands of fraudulent licenses, including CDLs, to illegal aliens.

The Department of Justice announced the arrest of a former Massachusetts State Police trooper in August, who was sentenced to prison for three months for his role in a CDL fraud plot. The trooper and three MSP employees allegedly "conspired to give preferential treatment to at least 17 CDL applicants by agreeing to give passing scores on their CDL tests regardless of whether or not they actually passed."

A July report from Freight Waves stated that despite a $926 million grant in 2024 to FMCSA to increase carrier safety, only 6% of interstate carriers actually underwent a compliance review.

"What does that actually mean? It means you can start a trucking company, put equipment on the road, hire drivers with questionable training — and the government might never even glance in your direction," the news outlet wrote. "It also means brokers, shippers, and even insurance companies are making decisions based on an illusion of compliance. A lot of these carriers aren't flying under the radar — they were never even on it to begin with."

Call to action

Everett predicted that highway safety will continue to deteriorate unless "sizeable action" is taken to correct the course.

American Truckers United has requested that President Donald Trump's DOT immediately revoke and ban non-domiciled CDLs for noncitizens. The group also called for restrictions on foreign CDLs, requiring that those drivers operate only within designated commercial trade zones by banning domestic hauling beyond those areas.

‘Allowing unvetted individuals into the trucking workforce poses unacceptable risks to national security, public safety, and the flow of commerce.’

Everett told Blaze News, "All of the countries identified as having dumped drivers into the American labor market are well known for third-world conditions and living standards for their workers. This has had the intended effect."

He explained that labor dumping has driven down wages and living standards for American workers.

"It's important to note that no enforcement mechanisms exist to ensure these new drivers are being paid prevailing wages or income taxes. Likewise because of staffing problems at FMCSA, little to no enforcement exists for these operators when it comes to safety regulations," Everett added.

Stevens believes some issues could be resolved by implementing new license standards and federal-level auditing, particularly for interstate commerce.

"I'm a big proponent of states' rights over any federalization, but movement of goods [and] people between states seems like a federal issue to me," Stevens said. "And right now that licensing structure amongst states is in shambles. And I believe it has been exploited way beyond comprehension."

"I would love to see President Trump call for a full audit of all CDLs issued over the last five years, because I have a feeling that this problem trickles into all forms of licenses," he stated.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images

DOT Secretary Sean Duffy, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and President Trump have moved to address the issues impacting the trucking industry.

In June, Duffy announced that the DOT would launch a nationwide audit on non-domiciled CDLs to specifically review for potentially "unqualified individuals obtaining licenses and posing a hazard on our roads."

The review aims to identify and prevent any potential patterns of abuse within state issuance procedures.

Duffy stated, "The open-borders policies of the last administration allowed millions to flood our country — leading to serious allegations that the trucking licensing system is being exploited."

A DOT spokesperson told Blaze News, "Under Secretary Duffy's leadership, the U.S. Department of Transportation is restoring strict security standards to protect the traveling public and safeguard our supply chains. Allowing unvetted individuals into the trucking workforce poses unacceptable risks to national security, public safety, and the flow of commerce. That is why we are working to close any loopholes, enhance background checks, and ensure only qualified, lawful drivers are entrusted with operating America's commercial vehicles."

Earlier this year, the Trump administration also moved to reverse Obama's 2016 memo, re-enforcing penalties for lack of English proficiency. The White House called it "a non-negotiable safety requirement for professional drivers."

Rubio announced on Thursday that the State Department would immediately pause all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers. The announcement appeared to be a reaction to the recent fatal crash in Florida involving an illegal alien.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official told Blaze News, “The Biden administration abused its parole authority to create an industrial-scale catch-and-release scheme, letting in unvetted illegal aliens including known suspected terrorists, gang members, and criminals, and the Trump administration is correcting that. DHS terminated parole for nearly 500,000 illegal aliens. Many states are using the SAVE database to help identify illegal aliens before granting them benefits like a driver’s license. We conduct thorough screening and vetting for any individual encountered at our borders to identify threats to public safety and national security.”

“While DHS does not directly coordinate with state transportation agencies in vetting CDL applicants, we will use every tool and resource available to protect the homeland, prevent terrorism, and keep our roads safe. The safety of Americans comes first,” the official said.

The TSA did not respond to a request for comment.

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