Mexican truck drivers rolling into Otay Mesa are getting a harsh surprise at the booth: some are being turned back on the spot as U.S. officials yank their B-1 visas over suspected illegal cabotage, the practice of hauling freight between two U.S. points. The sudden crackdown is already tightening cross-border capacity, according to brokers and carriers who work the Tijuana-to-California lanes.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Otay Mesa and other Southwestern ports of entry have been scrutinizing drivers' records and processing on-the-spot visa revocations when safety data suggests domestic hauling. That stepped-up enforcement was first flagged by industry reporting from Transport Topics. The Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce says "hundreds" of drivers have already been denied entry and warns that agents are digging through multiple years of ELD, GPS, PSP and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration inspection histories to spot potential cabotage runs. Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce
How federal data is flagging drivers
Behind the scenes, the crackdown is being powered by data. Federal officials and trade coverage say the Department of Transportation and CBP have linked safety, inspection and telematics systems so warnings from DOT roadside checks can flow straight into immigration screening at the ports.
A DOT spokesperson told Overdrive that the agencies are leveraging data sharing with CBP so cabotage violations carry immediate and real consequences for drivers at the border. Industry outlets report that the merged systems are sweeping in drivers with older warnings who may not have realized those infractions could come back to haunt their visas. Data from CANACAR cited by FreightWaves points to roughly 3,200 drivers affected across the wider border region.
Local impact and industry reaction
On the ground, the enforcement shift is squeezing some of the busiest lanes that move freight north from Tijuana into the United States. Otay Mesa is one of California's key commercial gateways, and any hit to driver availability there tends to ripple through warehouses, drayage operations and longhaul capacity.
Federal travel and freight studies from FHWA underscore the port's outsized role in regional trade flows. Local business groups and industry analysts warn that with more drivers sidelined, shippers should brace for slower crossings and higher trucking costs as carriers rework how they staff international moves. Trade coverage, including reporting by Supply Chain Beat, has traced the emerging supply-chain ripple effects along the border.
Legal basics: What B-1 permits - and forbids
At the core of the crackdown is a fairly simple legal rule that gets complicated fast in real life. Under U.S. customs regulations, a foreign-based truck can operate inside the country only when its movements are "incidental to the immediately prior or subsequent engagement" in international traffic. Once a run turns into a purely domestic haul from one U.S. point to another, it risks violating 19 C.F.R. § 123.14.
CBP rulings and guidance from trade counsel show that the "incidental to international traffic" exception is interpreted narrowly. A driver who accepts a domestic pickup or delivery that is not clearly tied to an international leg can face immigration consequences, including visa revocation. For background and legal analysis, see recent rulings from CBP and commentary from JD Supra.
What carriers and drivers should do
With cabotage suddenly carrying real immigration stakes, carriers and drivers are being urged to tighten up their paperwork and routing decisions. Operations managers and dispatchers are advising cross-border drivers to:
• Document the international nature of every trip in their files.
• Keep clean, consistent ELD and PSP records that match the trip story.
• Steer clear of domestic point-to-point loads while in the United States, even if a short hop looks harmless.
• Confirm visa and border-crossing card status before attempting to re-enter.
Drivers who believe a visa was wrongly revoked are being told to contact their employer and seek guidance from the appropriate consulate, while carriers are under pressure to audit trip paperwork and safety logs now that enforcement has intensified. Updated English-proficiency and roadside enforcement expectations are outlined in guidance from FMCSA, and industry summaries of how those policies play out on the road are available through outlets like Overdrive.
For now, federal agencies have not released a single, consolidated tally of how many drivers have had visas denied or revoked, leaving local chambers, Mexican carriers and trade journalists to piece it together. As reported by Transport Topics, estimates range from the Otay Mesa chamber's "few hundred" figure at that single port to CANACAR's roughly 3,200 drivers affected across the border region. The wide spread underscores both how quickly the policy is reshaping cross-border trucking and how uncertain the road ahead looks for shippers and drivers caught in the middle.
