Rep. Lance Gooden (R., Texas) has a bipartisan plan, obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, to “end [] Mexican exploitation of U.S. rail standards that threatens American railroad jobs and border security,” he explained to the Reporter.
Gooden’s latest bill, the Protecting American Railroad Workers Jobs Act, is designed to close a legal loophole that allows foreign rail crews to operate inside America, which he argues jeopardizes both border security and American jobs.
“Freight moving through the United States should be operated by workers legally authorized to work here and held to American safety standards,” he added. Currently, foreign rail crews are able to bypass both safety inspections and crew changes at America’s border with Mexico; Gooden’s bill, which he introduced alongside Rep. Chris Pappas (D., N.H.), requires trains crossing America’s border with Mexico to undergo mandatory crew changes and safety checks.
The bill also requires that trains operating within America’s borders are operated by workers who are legally permitted to work in America. Advocates like Gooden argue that it is needed in part to also ensure that Mexican cartels can’t smuggle drugs via trains across America’s borders. The Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) sentenced eleven defendants to over 100 years in prison in 2025 for their participation in an international “drug trafficking ring that used train cars in the Midwest to smuggle fentanyl and methamphetamine.”
“The methods ranged from delivery by the United States Postal Service, commercial land vehicle smuggling, and the use of trains,” the DOJ noted at the time.
The bill has already been endorsed by unions like the Teamsters Rail Conference and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET).
