Trump Administration Teases New Plan to Keep Non-English-Speaking Truck Drivers Off Roads

After an illegal immigrant truck driver killed three in a Florida traffic crash, the Trump administration plans to crack down on trucking companies that hire non-English speakers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told The Daily Signal. 

Harjinder Singh, the illegal immigrant charged in the killing of three people in an Aug. 12 car crash on the Florida Turnpike, answered just two of 12 questions correctly when being tested for English language proficiency by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. 

Duffy is holding blue states who allowed Singh to obtain and maintain a commercial driver’s license accountable. 

But he’s also looking into ways to hold to account trucking companies that hire drivers who don’t speak English in violation of federal law. 

“We are going to use every tool available to us to make sure those who violated our rules, the law, are held to account,” he said in response to a question from The Daily Signal aboard the new NextGen Acela train. 

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a division of the Transportation Department, has had long-standing English-language proficiency requirements. 

Under Duffy’s May 20 guidance, commercial motor vehicle drivers who don’t comply with the English-language proficiency requirements will be placed out of service.

Within the first 30 days of the guidance being in effect, 1,500 commercial drivers were taken out of service. 

Duffy said the Transportation Department is working to “unpack” what’s going on with trucking companies to “make sure that we can have better rules in place.” 

Americans on the road should feel safe, which isn’t possible when some truck drivers can’t read English-language road signs, Deputy Transportation Secretary Steve Bradbury told The Daily Signal. 

“You should expect that anyone who’s driving an 80,000-pound rig, that they are well-qualified, they’re well-licensed, and every aspect of the law was followed before they got that license,” he said. 

Another threat on the roads is violation of cabotage laws, Duffy said, which prohibit foreign-based carriers from commuting into the U.S., dropping off a load, and then picking up a new domestic load for delivery within the U.S.

“What’s happening now is, those truckers are picking up one, two, three, four, or more stops in our country,” Duffy said. “It’s illegal, and we’re unpacking that as well, but we are going to use every tool available to us to make sure those who are violating the law are held to account,” Duffy said. 

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