Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced on Friday that the Trump administration would make America’s roads safer by continuing to ensure that truck drivers understand English.
Joined by GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden, Duffy visited Monroe County, Wisconsin, on Friday to highlight the allocation of $8.4 million to improve infrastructure in the region and the moves made by the Trump administration to make highways safer. Duffy’s comments come amid several high-profile incidents involving illegal immigrant truck drivers across the country.
“We have a longstanding rule that you have to speak English if you’re going to have a commercial driver’s license,” Duffy said Friday. “And the Obama administration had put a slap on the wrist for that offense. We brought a penalty back for not being able to be English proficient in the cab.”
🚛 ATTENTION TRUCKERS: I HAVE YOUR BACKS 🚛
I joined @RepVanOrden in Wisconsin to talk about the backbone of America’s economy 🇺🇸
💰$8.4 MILLION SECURED TO RURAL WISCONSIN
We also heard you loud and clear: on roads, ❌ NO ENGLISH, NO TRUCKING 🗣️🚫
Make Trucking Great Again! pic.twitter.com/wfcSaQlTmG
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) March 15, 2026
Duffy added that he wished he had law enforcement under his control to help enforce the English proficiency requirements, saying the Department of Transportation was dependent on state partners to crack down on unauthorized drivers.
“I rely on my state partners to actually help enforce our rules and our laws. And some states are great. Some are not, like California, not so great, or New York or Minnesota, they’re not good partners,” Duffy said.
At the same event, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Derek Barrs said that the agency would be taking steps to make sure that certified truck drivers can pass the written and skills test in English.
“It doesn’t make sense where you can go and take the written test in any language that you want to, but then you can do the skills test,” he said. “It has to be in English. It should all be done in English, and that’s the direction that we’re going from an agency.”
In one incident highlighted by the White House, an Indian illegal immigrant, Partap Singh, allegedly caused significant injuries to a 5-year-old girl after triggering a multi-car pileup while driving an 18-wheeler with a California commercial driver’s license in June 2024. The young girl, Dalilah Coleman, suffered a traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, and developmental delay as a result of the crash.
The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability held a hearing earlier this month on the safety issue related to illegal immigrant truck drivers.
.png)
.png)
