Trump Pulls Truckers Who Failed English Off Roads

The crackdown comes after Trump signed an executive order in March designating English as the official language of the United States. In April, he signed another order directing Duffy to ensure that commercial truck drivers who fail to meet English-language proficiency standards are taken out of service.

“My Administration will enforce the law to protect the safety of American truckers, drivers, passengers, and others, including by upholding the safety enforcement regulations that ensure that anyone behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle is properly qualified and proficient in our national language, English,” Trump wrote in the April order. “This is common sense.”

Trump’s April order scrapped an Obama-era rule under which inspectors could cite truckers for failing English requirements but were not allowed to remove them from service, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said in a May memo.

In one Florida case, Indian national Harjinder Singh was accused of killing three people after making an illegal U-turn in a semi-truck.

Officials said Singh—who was in the United States illegally—failed an English exam, answered only two of 12 questions correctly, and could identify just one of four road signs. Despite that, Washington state issued him a full-term commercial driver’s license (CDL) in 2023, and California issued a second CDL in 2024.

Singh pleaded not guilty in September. The Epoch Times reached out to Singh’s attorney for comment at the time but did not receive a response.

Federal reviews have identified similar cases in California, New York, Pennsylvania, and other states, prompting widespread scrutiny of state licensing practices.

The audit found that more than 25 percent of California’s nondomiciled CDLs were issued improperly, many to drivers whose lawful presence in the United States had expired months or years earlier. One Brazilian national received endorsements to operate school buses after his immigration documents had lapsed, in a case the Transportation Department described as shocking.

The language crackdown coincides with heightened immigration enforcement targeting commercial drivers who are in the country illegally.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in October that 146 illegal immigrants operating semi-trucks were arrested during a joint ICE–Indiana State Police operation near the Illinois border. More than 40 drivers held CDLs issued by states including California, Illinois, and New York.