Banks introduces Dalilah Law to bar states from granting a commercial license to illegal alien

"Americans are paying the price because illegal drivers are being handed commercial driver’s licenses like candy and put behind the wheel of 80,000-pound trucks," Sen. Jim Banks said

By Natalia Mittelstadt

Published: February 25, 2026 2:53pm

Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., on Wednesday introduced the Dalilah Law to bar states from granting commercial driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

The bill's introduction comes the day after President Trump called on Congress during the State of the Union to pass the legislation, according to Banks' office.

“Too many people have been hurt. Too many have been killed,” Banks said in a statement. “Americans are paying the price because illegal drivers are being handed commercial driver’s licenses like candy and put behind the wheel of 80,000-pound trucks. That stops now. The Dalilah Law makes it clear: if you are here illegally, you do not get a CDL. We need to act and we need to act now.”

The law, if passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump, requires that states receiving Department of Transportation funding must give trucking licenses only to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and certain work visa holders. The law also would revoke all trucking licenses currently issued to illegal immigrants and immigrants with temporary status, regardless of whether they have work authorization; and only offer CDL knowledge and skill tests in English.

The bill is named for Dalilah Coleman, a first-grader who was severely injured in a six-car pileup caused by an illegal immigrant driving a semitruck with a CDL in California. The driver, Indian illegal immigrant Partap Singh, crossed the border in 2022 and was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration.

Coleman's father said that the crash resulted in her inability to walk, talk, eat orally, or attend school as planned. She was in a coma for three weeks and required six months of hospital treatment before going home.

While in the hospital, Coleman had a craniectomy and was without half of her skull for four months. She also experienced a broken femur, skull fractures, and has since been diagnosed with diplegic cerebral palsy, global developmental delay, and will need lifelong therapy.