Brandon Gill Issues 'Barron's Law' to Get Non-English Speaking Truck Drivers Off American Highways

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) has introduced legislation — named after 8-year-old Barron Ritchey, who was killed in a 2023 crash allegedly caused by an illegal alien truck driver — to prevent non-English speakers from securing Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs), among other things.

On Tuesday, Gill introduced Barron’s Law to require CDL applicants to prove that they are American citizens, green card-holders, or authorized to work in the United States. Likewise, applicants would have to pass standardized English-language proficiency tests and have such tests approved by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

“Barron’s death was a heartbreaking and preventable tragedy — his family should never have had to suffer his loss as a result of Democrat-era immigration failures,” Gill said in a statement. “While nothing can fix the pain of his death, this legislation aims to prevent any other Americans from dying at the hands of illegal aliens behind the wheel on our roads. We must ensure that truckers are here lawfully and speak our language.”

The legislation would similarly go after so-called “chameleon carriers,” which are those trucking companies operating under various names.

In April 2023, Barron was in the car with his mother Stephanie driving home from a school trip on Interstate 35 near Hillsboro, Texas, when a wheel hub and tires broke off a semi-truck and hit their vehicle.

Barron died as a result of the crash. The semi-truck driver, Martin Monreal-Alvarado, had overstayed his B-1 visa six months prior and was in the U.S. illegally.

The Ritchey family said in a statement:

Our son Barron was a joyful eight-year-old boy who loved his family and friends, playing with his dog Cowboy, and he especially loved making people laugh. He had his whole life ahead of him, and there is not a day that goes by that we don’t miss his smile, his laughter, and all of the moments we should still be sharing with him. Because of our faith in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ and the atonement of His blood over our lives, we have the blessed assurance that we will see our son again. In the years since we lost Barron, we have learned that his death was not the result of just one failure, but a series of failures across our transportation and immigration systems. Many of those same issues have now become part of a national conversation about who should be allowed to operate commercial trucks on our roads and how our laws are enforced.

The family cotinued, “We are grateful to Congressman Gill for listening to Barron’s story and introducing Barron’s Law. Nothing can bring our son back, but we hope that changes made in his name can help prevent another family from suffering the same unimaginable loss.”

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com.