Non-English Speaking Migrant Truck Driver Gets Sweetheart Deal After Deadly Crash

News admin August 3, 2026 0 Comments

Non-English Speaking Migrant Truck Driver Gets Sweetheart Deal After Deadly Crash

A non-English-speaking Ukrainian migrant killed two people while driving a semi-truck in Alabama after becoming distracted by his phone. Now, he’s getting off with a slap on the wrist.

Andrii Dmyterko recently took a plea deal, pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of criminally negligent homicide, while prosecutors dismissed two felony charges of homicide by vehicle, Fox 10 reported. He received a sentence of two years in Clarke County jail and was credited for 430 days, meaning he will need to serve less than a year behind bars.

While behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler on May 6, 2025, Dmyterko crashed into four vehicles stopped at a red light, resulting in the deaths of two people. Dmyterko didn’t stop until his truck was roughly the length of two football fields from the crash scene.

The victims of the crash were later identified as Woodie Earl Beck III, 53, and Ashley Marie Springer McDonald, 37, according to AL.com.

In an effort to ensure the Ukrainian national stays locked up, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer with local authorities in Alabama requesting that they hand him over upon his eventual release.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the Biden administration let Dmyterko into the country in 2024 through its humanitarian parole program for Ukraine.

That same year, he applied for a work visa and received one, DHS said.

“This alien from Ukraine was paroled into our country by the Biden Administration. Now, because of his reckless driving behind the wheel of a semi-truck, two people are dead,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement earlier last month.

“ICE has lodged a detainer asking Alabama officials to cooperate with us and turn him over when his sentence is complete so that we can remove him from our country,” Bis added.

The Trump administration has enacted new training requirements for individuals seeking Commercial Driver’s Licenses to drive heavy trucks following a string of crashes by foreign drivers, some of whom were in the country illegally. Among the changes is the enforcement of an English-language requirement.

President Donald Trump also recently introduced a plan to train American veterans to replace illegal immigrant truck drivers.

The new program would allow veterans with two years of experience safely operating heavy military vehicles to bypass the traditional CDL training process, which takes roughly three to eight weeks and often costs applicants between $3,000 and $6,000.

In a recent X post discussing the new program, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he has “ZERO TOLERANCE for any Americans being put in harm’s way,” adding that it “shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”

“Getting ILLEGALS and FRAUDSTERS out from behind the wheel and putting great American Veterans in the driver’s seat is one of the many ways the Department of Transportation is working tirelessly to bring safety back to our roads,” he said.