All truckers and bus drivers will have to take their commercial driver's license tests in English as the Trump administration expands its aggressive campaign to improve safety in the industry and get unqualified drivers off the road. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the latest effort Friday to ensure that drivers understand English well enough to read road signs and communicate with law enforcement officers. Earlier this week, the Transportation Department said 557 driving schools should close because they failed to meet basic safety standards. And the department has been aggressively going after states that handed out commercial driver's licenses to immigrants who shouldn't have qualified for them ever since a fatal crash in August.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis dispatched his top deputy to California to oversee the handover of a truck driver accused of making an illegal U-turn that killed three people in Florida. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins' presence in Stockton, California, on Thursday underscores Republicans' push to crack down on illegal immigration. It also revs up a political rivalry between DeSantis and California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Collins says the driver was in the country illegally from India and never should have been issued a driver's license. A Newsom spokesperson called Collins' trip a "photo op" and criticized Florida officials for letting the suspect leave Florida in the first place.
Brushing up on English has taken on new urgency for truck drivers in the United States. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April saying that commercial truckers who don't read and speak the language proficiently would be considered unfit for service. Federal guidelines for applying the order are going into effect. They call for enhanced roadside inspections to decide if truckers can reply to questions and directions in English, as well as understand highway traffic signs and message boards. Some truckers worry they may lose their jobs if they make a mistake or speak with a heavy accent.
