Illegal Immigrant Truckers Hauling Amazon Trailers Tied To Major Crashes

When a truck collided with a woman’s car on a major roadway in Jefferson, Georgia, on August 27, 2024, the 20-year-old driver didn’t think twice about the person who crashed into her.

The man who hit her spoke some English, but made a phone call in a foreign language while local police responded to the accident, according to police body camera footage obtained by The Daily Wire. The young woman, who requested anonymity due to the nature of her career, said she later learned that the driver lacked insurance coverage.

The victim had to undergo physical therapy for roughly nine months after the accident.

It wasn’t until more than a year later, as stories started to arise about illegal immigrant truckers causing major collisions on America’s roads, that she began to question things.

The truck driver, Uzbek national Jakhongir Yuldashev, crossed the border illegally into Yuma, Arizona, just two years before the crash, according to immigration records reviewed by The Daily Wire. He was later released from federal custody after posting his immigration bond, a federal law enforcement source said.

He allegedly collided with the young woman while hauling an Amazon trailer, exposing a greater issue of how major companies contracting truckers may be unknowingly using illegal labor, a Daily Wire investigation has revealed.

Yuldashev received a trucking license in Pennsylvania, allowing him to move Amazon packages and freight across the country, according to police records.

Trucking experts say it shows just how “widespread” the issue of illegal immigrants driving trucks is in the labor market.

Cole Stevens, a member of American Truckers United, told The Daily Wire that the trucking industry is full of loopholes that lead to similar situations.

“I believe Amazon is one of your largest culprits. They utilize a bit of the get out of jail free card of broker/logistics mechanisms, and then they claim federal preemption, which is that they don’t hire the driver themselves,” Stevens said.

“And so everything checks out, maybe down to a license … but they’re bouncing around safety scores, they’re bouncing around insurance.”

Solomun Weldekeal Araya, 37, an illegal immigrant from Eritrea, allegedly killed five people, including a child and an infant, in March when he was hauling an Amazon load through Austin, Texas.

He was arrested and charged with five counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault in connection with the crash.

Araya entered the United States in 2020 as a refugee and applied for a green card in 2022. His request was ultimately denied, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire.

Amazon called the fatal crash “a horrible tragedy,” telling The Daily Wire, “our thoughts remain with everyone involved.”

“We’re cooperating with all investigations,” the Amazon spokesman said. “Safety is our top priority, and we comply with all rules and regulations and require our partners to do the same.”

Amazon says it partners with trucking companies that “move inventory and equipment via line haul truck.” The carriers are required to run background checks on their drivers in order to haul for Amazon.

As for the Georgia case, while Yuldashev wasn’t employed by Amazon, the company he worked for assigned him Amazon loads up until September 2024, an Amazon spokesman told The Daily Wire.

Police ultimately let Yuldashev go with a citation because nothing was “flagged” since he presented officers with an insurance policy number and his Pennsylvania-issued commercial driver’s license. Authorities later confirmed that he lacked insurance coverage.

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation wouldn’t confirm whether or not Yuldashev was issued a trucking license “due to state and federal privacy laws.”

“All non-citizens who apply for driver’s licenses, including CDLs [commercial driver’s licenses], must provide PennDOT with proof of identity and must have their legal presence in this country verified through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database — a database maintained by the United States Department of Homeland Security. PennDOT follows the established federal process for confirming that the applicant is lawfully present using the SAVE database in every case,” the spokesman said.

Pennsylvania has drawn the ire of the Trump administration, which has threatened to withhold $75 million in federal funds from the state if they don’t revoke the commercial driver’s licenses from foreign drivers who are in the United States illegally.

Earlier this month, an illegal immigrant from Kyrgyzstan who was given a Pennsylvania commercial driver’s license allegedly killed four people in Indiana while behind the wheel of a truck.