Terri Hall - Founder & Executive Director, TexasTURF Joins Houston's Morning News
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No purchase necessary. 18 plus void where prohibited. Full terms apply. See what everyone's talking about. Play today at lucky hands. Your luck is in your hands. I'm thinking Dave Dudley knows a little English. 724 here in Houston's morning news. All right. The Texas House Transportation Committee taking up a big hearing. As I said, coming up on Monday, they're going to talk about foreign holders of commercial drivers licenses CDLs. Terry Hall joins us, founder and executive director of Texas turf, which stands for Texans United for... What's the rest of it, Terry? Reform and freedom. There you go. Reform and freedom. Not to be confused with turf companies that sell artificial grass. Correct. Welcome to the show. With transportation. Yes, well, thank you. How big of a problem. I think Texas was really one of the first states that really get on board as far as checking these CDLs for these foreign drivers, weren't we? Absolutely, because Secretary Sean Duffy, who is the Secretary of Transportation nationwide, actually did an audit and found that Texas is one of the top five offenders of issuing these commercial driver's licenses to foreign drivers. So, obviously, being the only red state on that list, you could bet that Governor Greg Abbott jumped into the fray very quickly and stopped issuing the CDLs to foreign drivers. But the problem still remains. What happens with all those that they've already issued them to? And we've seen a 17 car pile up in Austin killing Texans. So this is a huge problem. It's a national problem, but it's also a Texas problem. And it's not enough to just stop issuing them. They have to go back and do some enforcement actions to hunt these folks down. And they really just need to be, if they're here illegally. They need to be deported. I think a lot of people would be surprised to hear that, Terry. I think they probably assume most Texans assume that in addition not issuing them anymore, they were going to revoke the licenses of people who didn't qualify. That's not what's happening. But states like Oklahoma and Florida have been very good about enforcement actions. They actually are going after the people revoking their licenses as well as working with ICE to deport them if that's what's needed. So, you know, this is dangerous. This is not about the public safety issue. If somebody can't read or speak English well enough to be behind the wheel of an 18 wheeler that can have 85,000 pound loads on Texas highways. That is a weapon. It is very, very dangerous, and it is killing Texans. And Americans across the country, it's a problem that needs to be dealt with. And I'm grateful that the House Transportation Committee is going to take it up on Monday. Well, assuming that they do the right thing, and we start revoking those licenses. Florida has already done it, as you said, Florida has been very aggressive about doing that. But there are still other states that you know are not. California issues just tons of CDLs. And I know that I know. Yeah, and I know that the Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, has been trying to play hardball with states like California. Has he been the least bit successful? You know, it's always hard to do hardball with California and New York when you have the kind of governance that they have out there. But no, I don't think we're getting very far, although I have to say he is starting to put some teeth in it with taking some of their federal transportation money away. And maybe that's what needs to happen in Texas for us to finally go after these guys and revoked their licenses.
We shouldn't be any different just because we're governed by a Republican governor. How do we get in this mess to begin with? I guess they always like to blame a shortage of drivers, but is that what the real problem was? No, I really think it goes back to all the way back to NAFTA, honestly. You know, we've been opposing these foreign drivers on our roads for a long time back when they had the Mexican trucking program start under Bush 43. Okay. All right. Do we find that... this has caused any particular issues for the trucking industry themselves. They've been kind of quiet about all this. I think they just kind of, they kind of looked in the other direction for a long, long time. And they thought, okay, well, this is keeping us supplied with the drivers that we need. And as long as this continues to happen, we'll just kind of keep on going on. But now the pressure I would think is on them as well. It sure should be. You know, even in New York, let's take that as an example. They actually issued one of these licenses that said driver has no name, like no name given. So some of these trucking schools that are issuing these licenses also are part of the problem. And when you're issuing it to somebody that doesn't even have a name listed, we have a problem, a big one. So I don't think there's even proper vetting going on. I don't think there is English proficiency being tested. They're just handing these things out like candy. And, you know, I have a lot of teen drivers that come online. I've got 10 kids, so I've got a new driver every two years. And I can tell you how they grill and put these teams through. You don't, I mean, it's crazy what they put the teams through to make sure that they're safe to be on the road. And yet we're going to put these foreign drivers behind the wheel of an 85,000 pound truck and unleash them all across America's highways. Well, we've seen what the damage is. We have people that are dying because of it. So it is a huge problem. It's the trucking companies. It's that want the cheap foreign labor. There's the other, you know, trucking schools that get out the CDLs. like candy, and then you've got government that looks the other way that's not revoking them and acting like they've solved the problem. So I think that the House putting some light on this on Monday is going to help pressure the governor to go back in and start revoking the licenses of those that have already been issued. Well, and organizations like yours also help, but keep doing what you're doing, Terry Hall. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Founder and Executive Director of Texas Turf, that's Terry Hall. L-D-E-E-H. Your night in just got legendary. Get ready to chase the rush, spin, win, and redeem instantly straight to your bank account at Legendswithazee.com. With free-to-play slots, blackjack, quino, roulette, and more. Experience all the thrills of Vegas without leaving your couch. Legends has it all. Legends is a free-to-play social casino void for prohibited. Must be 18-plus play responsibly visit Legends.com for full details. Get in the game now and score a 100% match on your first purchase only at Legends withazee.com. If you run a business, you've probably heard plenty of AI promises. But here's one thing we know for sure. When consumers hear an ad for your business, 90% want to know it's a real person talking. And that's what you'll get when you advertise with IHeart. We're guaranteed human.
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