Three people are already dead on the Florida Turnpike because a trucker couldn't read the road.
Now Fox News cameras have captured what that actually looks like at a weigh station.
What the cameras caught next is something Democrats in three states are spending millions in legal fees trying to make sure you never see enforced.
Obama Killed the Rule and Biden Watched the Bodies Stack Up
This isn't a new problem and it isn't a new law.
English proficiency for commercial drivers has been federal law since 1937 – the requirement that truckers "read and speak the English language sufficiently" to understand highway signs and respond to official inquiries.
Obama's DOT gutted enforcement in 2016, issuing guidance that told inspectors not to place drivers out of service for language violations.
The result was predictable.
Over 100,000 drivers received non-English violations in a single year – 2014 – and barely 4,000 faced any real consequence.
States like California took the opening and ran with it, using sham CDL mills to push unqualified drivers straight onto the interstate.
https://twitter.com/Arkadalo/status/2036553346014912838?s=20
Florida Highway Patrol Master Trooper Craig Lents explained what happens next: at 70 miles per hour, a driver gets a split second to read a warning sign.
If he can't read it, he can't act on it.
Three people died on the Florida Turnpike in August 2025 because Harjinder Singh – an illegal immigrant who obtained a CDL in California – attempted an illegal U-turn and blocked all lanes of the highway.
Singh failed an English proficiency test after the crash.
In Oregon, Rajinder Kumar – another illegal immigrant from India who obtained a CDL in California – jackknifed his tractor-trailer on U.S. Highway 20, killing two people.
In Indiana in February 2026, Bekzhan Beishekeev – who entered the U.S. illegally using Biden's CBP One app – swerved into oncoming traffic and killed four people.
Pennsylvania, under Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro, issued his CDL.
Trump and Duffy Reversed the Damage Obama Started
Trump reversed the Obama rule in April 2025 with an executive order titled "Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America's Truck Drivers."
https://twitter.com/BrandonStraka/status/2036631657298735577?s=20
By May 2025, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy signed the enforcement guidance making it official: fail the English test, get placed out of service.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance added English proficiency to its out-of-service criteria effective June 25, 2025.
Within the first 30 days, 1,500 drivers were pulled from the road.
That number has now surpassed 3,700 nationwide.
In January 2026, a single three-day blitz across 26 states checked over 8,000 trucks and placed 704 drivers out of service – nearly 500 of them for English proficiency failures alone.
Congress followed up in February 2026, passing legislation that formally mandated English proficiency failures trigger out-of-service orders – codifying what Trump's executive order demanded.
Duffy's February 2026 rule also closed the CDL loophole directly: no more issuing licenses based on Employment Authorization Documents alone, no more state-by-state workarounds, no more CDLs for illegal immigrants regardless of which governor wants to hand them out.
At least 30 states had been issuing CDLs to drivers deemed ineligible.
The DOT is now threatening to withhold federal highway funds from states like California, Pennsylvania, and Illinois that refuse to comply.
Half the Trucks at Some Stops Are a Disaster Waiting to Happen
What Fox News captured in North Florida isn't an outlier – it's the rule.
Florida troopers say up to half of truckers at some weigh stations cannot meet English proficiency requirements.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2036496841156538846?s=20
One in two.
An 80,000-pound truck barreling down the interstate at highway speed, driven by someone who answers "No" when asked what a road sign means.
Democrat governors in California, Pennsylvania, and Illinois are still fighting the enforcement that would fix it – threatening legal challenges and withholding cooperation while the body count grows.
Trump named this accurately in his executive order: English proficiency for a commercial driver is "a non-negotiable safety requirement."
Obama decided it was negotiable.
Thirty people paid for that decision with their lives in 2025 alone.
Sources:
- Alexandra Koch and Alexis McAdams, "EXCLUSIVE: Cameras capture truckers unable to read road signs, answer basic questions during Florida crackdown," Fox News, March 24, 2026.
- "U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Signs Order Announcing New Guidance to Enforce English Proficiency Requirement for Truckers," Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, May 2025.
- "Trump's Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Puts Safety First, Finalizes Rule to Stop Unqualified Foreign Drivers from Driving Big Rigs on American Roadways," U.S. Department of Transportation, February 2026.
- "ICE Arrests Illegal Alien Semi-Truck Driver who Killed 4, Injured Others in Indiana," Department of Homeland Security, February 5, 2026.
- "Secretary Noem Backs Dalilah Law to Bar States from Granting Commercial Driver's Licenses to Illegal Aliens," Department of Homeland Security, February 25, 2026.
- "Congress mandates FMCSA regulation change so English proficiency failure triggers out-of-service order for CDL drivers," CDL Life, February 4, 2026.
