RaisedashThe Dalilah Law Just Dropped. Here's What Every Fleet Operator Needs to Do in the Next 180 Days.
The Dalilah Law could force recertification of every CDL holder in your fleet within 180 days. Here's what the bill requires, what FMCSA's final rule means, and what fleet operators should do right now.
The Dalilah Law Just Dropped. Here's What Every Fleet Operator Needs to Do in the Next 180 Days.
On February 24, 2026, President Trump stood at the State of the Union podium and called on Congress to pass "the Dalilah Law." Less than 24 hours later, Senator Jim Banks introduced the bill on the Senate floor. That's not normal legislative speed. And the implications for carriers, fleet operators, and safety managers aren't small.
If you run trucks, this bill could force you to recertify every single CDL holder on your payroll within six months. Here's what we know, what it means for your operation, and what you should be doing right now.
A Five-Year-Old Girl, a Construction Zone, and a Broken System
The law is named after Dalilah Coleman, a Bakersfield, California girl who was five years old when an 18-wheeler plowed into stopped traffic on Highway 395 near Adelanto in June 2024. According to DHS, the truck was traveling at an unsafe speed through a clearly marked construction zone. Dalilah suffered a broken femur, multiple skull fractures, and traumatic brain injury. She spent three weeks in a coma. Doctors had to remove half her skull. She was hospitalized for six months and diagnosed with cerebral palsy and global developmental delay.
She's seven now. She's relearning how to walk. She can't eat on her own.
The driver, Partap Singh, was an Indian national who entered the U.S. through the southern border in October 2022. He held a California-issued CDL. ICE arrested him in Fresno in August 2025 and he was held pending immigration proceedings.
Dalilah's father, Marcus Coleman, became a vocal advocate for trucking reform. Her mother, Ileana Krause, is herself a Class A truck driver and a legal resident originally from Mexico. This isn't a simple political story. It's a complicated human one.
What the Bill Actually Requires (Not Just the Headlines)
The political messaging around the Dalilah Law is loud. But if you're a fleet operator, what matters is the operational reality. Here's what the bill would do if enacted.
CDL eligibility gets narrowed significantly. Only U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and holders of specific work visas (E-2 Treaty investors, H-2A and H-2B temporary workers) would qualify for a CDL. Everyone else is out.
Mandatory revocation of existing CDLs. Any CDL currently held by an undocumented immigrant or someone with temporary status gets revoked. Even if they have existing work authorization.
English-only CDL testing. Knowledge and skills exams must be administered exclusively in English. No exceptions.
The 180-day recertification bomb. This is the one that should have every fleet manager's attention. Every current CDL holder in the country would need to recertify within 180 days of enactment, verifying citizenship or residency status and English proficiency. Miss the window? Automatic revocation.
Lifetime disqualification authority. The Transportation Secretary would gain the power to permanently bar anyone from operating a commercial vehicle if they lack the required legal status.
The enforcement mechanism is federal funding. States that don't comply risk losing their DOT dollars. The administration has already shown it's willing to pull that trigger. USDOT threatened to withhold roughly $160 million in federal highway funds from California over its CDL issuance practices.
Here's the Part Most People Are Missing
There's a legitimate question at the center of this debate that doesn't get enough attention. Under existing federal rules, undocumented immigrants can't legally obtain CDLs. The regulation at 49 CFR § 383.71 requires proof of citizenship or lawful permanent residency. Some non-citizens with lawful immigration status can obtain non-domiciled CDLs with proper documentation, but the standard path already requires legal presence. Axios flagged this as a "reality check" in their coverage.
So why pass a new law?
Two reasons. First, enforcement. A federal FMCSA/DOT audit found that roughly 17,000 CDLs in California were held by drivers who were no longer legally in the country, with a noncompliance rate of about 25% among reviewed non-domiciled CDL files. The rules existed. States weren't following them consistently.
Second, the Dalilah Law goes further than existing regulations. The 180-day universal recertification mandate and the English-only testing requirement would reshape commercial licensing nationwide. These aren't enforcement patches. They're new policy.
FMCSA already published its own final rule on February 13, 2026 (effective March 16, 2026) tightening non-domiciled CDL eligibility. The Dalilah Law would codify and harden those restrictions through statute, backed by the funding mechanism that rulemaking alone can't deliver.
The Numbers Tell a Complicated Story
According to FMCSA data reported by TIME, immigrants with CDLs account for roughly 0.2% of all fatal crashes. That's a tiny fraction. The trucking industry already has a well-documented driver shortage, and critics argue that sweeping restrictions could make it worse.
On the other hand, FMCSA's final rule cites fatal crashes in 2025 involving non-domiciled CDL holders whose fitness could not be verified due to limited access to foreign driving records. The agency also found that states were issuing CDLs with validity periods extending beyond the expiration of drivers' lawful presence documents.
Both things can be true at once. The statistical scale of the problem may be small. The individual cases can be catastrophic. Dalilah Coleman's injuries are proof of that.
What This Means for Your Fleet Right Now
Whether or not the Dalilah Law passes in its current form, the direction is clear. FMCSA's final rule takes effect March 16, 2026. The administration is actively pressuring states. California's DMV has already begun the cancellation process for thousands of non-domiciled CDLs (though it later extended the timeline). A class-action lawsuit has been filed challenging those cancellations, and the legal situation remains in flux.
The compliance landscape is shifting fast. And the operational burden falls on carriers.
If you're a fleet operator or safety manager, here's the honest assessment of where things stand.
Your driver documentation needs to be airtight. If you have drivers on non-domiciled CDLs, you need to verify their status now. Not when the rule takes effect. Not when your state sends a notice. Now. The 180-day recertification clock could start ticking as soon as the bill is signed, and scrambling at month five is how fleets end up with trucks parked and loads undelivered.
Your hiring and onboarding process needs a compliance layer. The days of accepting a CDL at face value and moving on are over. You need documented verification workflows that prove you checked status, confirmed eligibility, and maintained records. This isn't just about avoiding fines. It's about protecting your operating authority.
Your training programs need to be current and documented. English Language Proficiency requirements are already law. FMCSA has publicly pressured multiple states (California, Washington, New Mexico) to enforce these requirements or face federal funding consequences. If your drivers can't demonstrate proficiency and you can't prove you trained and tested them, you're exposed.
Here's a practical starting point. If you have drivers who need to strengthen their English before a recertification window opens, TruckTalk is a free tool we built specifically for CDL holders. It covers the exact vocabulary drivers encounter during DOT inspections, ELD log reviews, and shipping paper checks, with AI-powered voice practice so they can rehearse real scenarios before facing them on the road. And for the road sign knowledge component of CDL testing, Raisedash Road Signs gives drivers flashcard-based study and practice exams covering all six sign categories required for Classes A, B, and C. Both tools are free to start. No credit card, no commitment. The point is to close gaps now, not after a recertification deadline forces your hand.
Your inspection and maintenance records need to be bulletproof. When regulators come knocking (and they will, because enforcement is the stated priority), they won't just look at CDL files. They'll look at your entire safety program. DVIRs, pre-trip inspections, defect resolution, training completion. Everything.
This Is Why Digital Compliance Isn't Optional Anymore
Paper-based compliance programs can't keep up with this pace of regulatory change. When a federal audit flags 17,000 non-compliant CDLs in a single state, or a final rule reshapes eligibility requirements with 30 days' notice, you need systems that adapt in real time.
RaiseDash's PTI module keeps your DVIR and pre-trip inspection records digital, centralized, and audit-ready. Our Shift training platform tracks driver certifications, English proficiency documentation, and compliance training completion across your entire fleet. And our real-time monitoring through Vertex means you know where every load is, who's driving it, and whether that driver's credentials are current.
On the driver readiness side, TruckTalk and Road Signs give your drivers the preparation tools they need before recertification testing begins. Fleet managers can track each driver's progress, quiz scores, and English proficiency levels from a single dashboard. That means when an auditor asks how you verified your drivers' English competency, you have timestamped records showing exactly what each driver studied, practiced, and passed.
We built RaiseDash because freight safety isn't something you can afford to get wrong. Dalilah Coleman's story makes that painfully clear. But safety isn't just about who's behind the wheel. It's about whether the systems around that driver are strong enough to catch problems before they become tragedies.
The Bottom Line
The Dalilah Law has strong Republican backing and administration support, but faces uncertain prospects in a divided Congress. That uncertainty is not a reason to wait. The FMCSA rule is already final. The enforcement push is already underway. States are already processing cancellations.
The fleets that come through this transition in good shape will be the ones that treated compliance as infrastructure, not paperwork. They'll have digital records that prove their safety programs are real. They'll have verified every driver's credentials before a regulator forced their hand. They'll have documented training, inspections, and monitoring that show a pattern of diligence, not scrambling.
That's what Dalilah Coleman deserves. It's also what your business requires.
If you're not sure where your fleet stands on compliance readiness, start with a 14-day free trial of RaiseDash and find out before someone else does it for you.