Sen Banks launches ‘TruckSafe Tipline’ to purge illegal drivers from U.S. highways

Amid increased concerns about highway deaths involving illegal immigrant drivers, conservative Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is launching a “TruckSafe Tipline” to allow truckers to share concerns about illegals on U.S. roads.

“Indiana is the crossroads of America and Hoosiers are being killed because drivers who shouldn’t be here are behind the wheel,” Banks said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.

Through the online portal, already operational, concerned citizens can share information about carriers they believe employ or contract with drivers who are not legally in the United States, who are not licensed to operate a truck, or who cannot meet required safety standards in the English language.

A spokesperson for Banks’ office told Fox News Digital that reports submitted to TruckSafe Tipline will be reviewed by the senator’s staff and shared with the U.S. Department of Transportation and its Office of Inspector General.

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Left: Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind. Right: An accident involving Bekzhan Beishekeev, a 30-year-old Kyrgyz national, which left four people dead. (CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images; Fox News/DHS)

“If you drive a truck on our roads, you have to be legal, you have to be able to read the road signs and you have to obey the law,” Banks said. “The TruckSafe Tipline gives people on the ground a way to speak up when they see carriers taking shortcuts and putting lives at risk.”

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This comes shortly after a tractor-trailer driver at the center of a multi-vehicle crash that left four people dead in Indiana was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Indiana State Police said the fatal crash occurred around 4 p.m. Tuesday in the area of ​​State Road 67 and County Road 550 East in Jay County, where the truck collided with a pickup truck.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News that the driver, Bekzhan Beishekeev, is a Kyrgyz national who entered the United States via the Biden-era CBP One cell phone app on December 19, 2024, at the Nogales, Arizona port of entry, and was released to the United States via parole by the Biden administration.

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Bekzhan Beishekeev, left, was taken into ICE custody following a fatal crash on Feb. 3, 2026, in Jay County, Indiana, near the state’s border with Ohio. (Jay County Sheriff’s Department)

Beishekeev, 30, was driving on SR 67 in Indiana when he failed to stop for another idling tractor-trailer, instead swerving into oncoming traffic and crashing head-on into a pickup truck, killing four people, several of whom were believed to be Amish.

Banks’ office noted that “this was not the first fatal accident caused by an illegal truck driver on Indiana roadways.” The office highlighted the death of Indiana National Guardsman Terry Frye last November in an accident involving a Georgia national who entered the country illegally in 2022.

A month earlier, Borko Stankovic, an illegal alien from Serbia and Montenegro, caused an accident involving several cars, which cost the life of a 54-year-old man. Despite being in the United States illegally since 2011, Stankovic owned two trucking companies that received more than $36,000 in COVID-19 relief funds.

In October, Fox News Digital reported that Illinois-based trucking executive Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of JKC Trucking, spoke out against illegal alien commercial drivers, not only endangering America’s roads but also “killing the trucking industry.”

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U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy during a press conference at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, Friday, October 24, 2025. (Ryan Collerd/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Kucharski further explained that although it is a heavily regulated industry, illegal alien truck drivers can exploit a “loophole” in the system by obtaining non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses from sanctuary states. They are then able to outcompete legitimate trucking companies by charging lower prices, causing many small American companies to disappear from the industry.

“America’s truck drivers are patriots and essential to our country. No one is more outraged than them by what is happening,” Banks wrote in another

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U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also addressed X, writing: “[Sen. Banks] It’s absolutely true! Too many lives have been lost and it must stop. »

“We will crack down on these shady trucking companies and get to the bottom of the crash that killed four members of the Amish community in Indiana,” he said, noting, “Stay tuned for more on this.”

Adam Sabes, Greg Norman-Diamond and Bill Melugin of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.