Florida bill would force carriers that hire illegal aliens to pay for crash injuries

A bill backed by Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and introduced in both houses of the state's legislature would require all pre-CDL tests and instruction be conducted in English and would make any company that hires "illegal aliens" pay "out-of-pocket for any injuries." 

Five months ago, a triple-fatal crash following non-citizen driver Harjinder Singh's illegal U-turn on Florida's turnpike system ignited a national media firestorm and fueled the U.S. Department of Transportation's crackdown on CDLs for non-citizens. 

Now, the state has responded with a new bill that would increase liabilities for any company that hires illegal aliens, as well as remove such a worker's protections and minimize their ability to move money. 

The legislation, known as House Bill 1307 or Senate Bill 1380, would do the following: 

• Prohibits all commercial driving license pre-licensing instruction, testing, and licensing procedures from being given in any other language than English.
• Remove Illegal aliens as covered employees in the Workers’ Compensation statute.
• Forces any company that hires illegal aliens to pay out-of-pocket for any injuries.  
• Requires companies to use E-Verify to submit a Workers' Compensation claim.
• Prohibits illegal aliens from receiving any license issued by the Department of Financial Services.
• Stops illegal alien IDs from being used to create bank accounts with a state chartered financial institution and for cashier’s checks.  
• Bans illegal aliens from benefitting from Down Payment Assistance programs and silent second home mortgage programs.  
• Forces illegal immigrants' insurance companies to accept fault if an illegal immigrant is involved in a car accident in Florida.  

“We must continue the fight against illegal immigration and put an end to the harm that has come to law-abiding citizens at the hands of illegal immigrants who should have never been in our country in the first place," CFO Ingoglia said. "With this legislation, we will build on Florida’s strong stance against illegal immigration, and we will create even more deterrents for illegal immigrants trying to enter our state.”

New

Overdrive's Load Profit Analyzer

Know your costs, owner-operators? Compute the potential profit in any truckload, access per-day and per-mile breakouts, and compare brokers' offers on multiple loads. Enter your trucking business's fixed and variable costs, and load information, to get started. Need help? Access this video to walk through examples with Overdrive’s own Gary Buchs, whose work assessing numbers in his own business for decades inspired the Analyzer to begin with.

Try it out!

Florida's CFO is a cabinet member and heads up the Florida Department of Financial Services.   

The move comes at a time where legal immigration routes into the U.S. have been curtailed and work authorizations made more expensive.