U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a property league to sermon the interaction of the authorities shutdown connected aerial information workers and question astatine Philadelphia International Airport successful Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 24, 2025.
Rachel Wisniewski | Reuters
The Trump administration said Wednesday that it has pulled astir 10,000 commercialized motortruck drivers disconnected U.S. roadways for failing to talk English sufficiently.
The boast comes arsenic trucking companies person raised alarms astir drivers being targeted by President Donald Trump's migration agenda.
"We've present knocked 9,500 motortruck drivers retired of work for failing to talk our nationalist connection — ENGLISH!" Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said successful an X post.
"This medication volition ever enactment you and your family's information first," Duffy said.
Duffy was responding to a study by Bloomberg that elaborate fallout successful the trucking manufacture from a caller connection argumentation and different rules.
The manufacture – which was already grappling with declining freight volumes and rising overheads – is bracing for a important driblet successful the proviso of drivers due to the fact that of the national government's enforcement actions, Bloomberg reported.
Trump signed an enforcement bid successful aboriginal March designating English arsenic the country's authoritative language.
In April, the president signed different order directing Duffy to guarantee that commercialized motortruck drivers who neglect to conscionable English proficiency requirements are taken retired of service.
That bid rescinded an Obama-era policy, which the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says directed unit to contented citations to commercialized drivers who interruption English standards, but not region them from service.
The strengthened enforcement argumentation went into effect successful late June.
Texas and Wyoming person seen the largest fig of drivers retired of the much than 9,500 who person been pulled from the road, Bloomberg reported.
The Trump medication has drawn links betwixt the surge successful migration during the medication of erstwhile President Joe Biden and roadworthy information concerns.
Read much CNBC authorities coverage
Duffy, successful precocious June, announced a nationwide audit of states' practices regarding issuing "non-domiciled" commercialized driver's licenses, with a peculiar absorption connected the "potential for unqualified individuals obtaining licenses and posing a hazard connected our roads."
"The unfastened borders policies of the past medication allowed millions to flood our state – starring to superior allegations that the trucking licensing strategy is being exploited," Duffy said astatine the time.
The medication has pointed to the transgression lawsuit of Harjinder Singh, a commercialized motortruck operator charged successful August with causing a deadly clang connected a Florida turnpike, arsenic an illustration of the trucking manufacture becoming a "lawless frontier."
The Transportation Department issued emergency rules aft the crash, limiting the issuance of commercialized licenses to non-U.S. citizens.
In October, Duffy's section said it would withhold implicit $40 million from California aft uncovering the authorities had not complied with the English proficiency standards.
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