Sen. Jim Banks Urges Congress to Codify Trump Immigration Policies to Prevent Future Rollbacks

Senator Jim Banks, R-Ind., is pressing the United States Senate to advance a package of seven immigration bills, warning that President Donald Trump’s signature immigration priorities could be dismantled by a future Democratic administration if Congress fails to codify them into law now.

As Republicans approach the midterms with control of Congress at stake, Banks argued that the current legislative window is shrinking. The proposed package targets birthright citizenship, visa regulations, commercial driver’s licenses, and Temporary Protected Status authority.

“I don’t just fear a Democrat majority. I fear a Democrat-Socialist majority because the [DSA] who control today’s Democrat Party support wide open borders, they support eliminating ICE, they are anti law enforcement, they want to defund the police,” Banks said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

While current Senate Democratic leaders are not aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, Banks argued a future Democratic-led Senate would be “owned by the socialist wing of their party.”

## The Dalilah Law and Commercial Driver’s Licenses

A central component of Banks’ legislative package is the Dalilah Law, a measure designed to crack down on commercial driver’s license regulations for non-citizens. The bill is named after Dalilah Coleman, a first-grader who suffered catastrophic injuries—including months in the hospital and a craniectomy—following a multi-car pileup on an Indiana highway caused by an illegal immigrant driving a big rig.

The driver, Partap Singh, was an Indian national who held a commercial driver’s license issued in California.

Proponents describe the Dalilah Law as the commercial driver’s license equivalent of the Laken Riley Act. If passed, the legislation would require states to halt the issuance of commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and certain foreign nationals, revoke specific existing licenses, and administer commercial driving tests only in English.

Banks compared the enforcement mechanism of the commercial driver’s license measure to the Reagan-era congressional push that successfully raised the national drinking age by threatening the withholding of federal transportation funds. He asserted that several Hoosiers have been injured or killed in collisions involving foreign drivers licensed by states that “hand CDLs out like candy,” specifically naming California, Pennsylvania, and New York.

Concurrently, the Trump administration has been investigating 75 truck driver schools for alleged fraud involving foreign nationals obtaining commercial licenses.

## Visa Reforms and Temporary Protected Status

Beyond transportation safety measures, Banks’ legislative package targets legal immigration channels and federal executive authority.

The American Tech Workforce Act, a key bill within the package, proposes raising the minimum salary threshold for H-1B visa positions from $60,000 to $150,000. Immigration attorneys argued the change would make the U.S. “far less attractive as a study destination” and encourage foreign talent to look to Canada instead.

“Many employers would be unable or unwilling to meet this threshold, effectively limiting H-1B hiring to top tech companies or highly specialized roles,” the Texas firm Reddy Neumann & Brown noted on its website.

Proponents of the wage threshold increase maintain that the policy would expand job market entry opportunities for American graduates.

Banks also called for greater congressional oversight regarding Temporary Protected Status authority, arguing that previous Democratic administrations abused the mechanism.

“If we legislate it and give Congress power to determine when TPS is appropriate when it’s not, then we’ll be able to address these issues long after President Trump leaves the White House,” Banks said.

Additional provisions within the seven-bill package include allocating border security funding to the War Department, restricting chain migration, and targeting grants to colleges employing illegal immigrants.