Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last week that 9,500 commercial truck drivers in the U.S. have been removed from service after failing to speak English sufficiently.
The removals come amid the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on trucking industry compliance, with the Department of Transportation (DOT) following up Friday with another threat to withhold $73 million in federal funding for New York for illegally issuing commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). In a federal audit of 200 sampled records, 107 CDLs were issued in violation of federal law.
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“When more than half of the licenses reviewed were issued illegally, it isn’t just a mistake—it is a dereliction of duty by state leadership,” Duffy said.
In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at enforcing English-language proficiency for commercial motor drivers, including truckers.
The EO reinforced an already existing federal law requiring holders of CDLs to be English-proficient. Its effect is most evident in its repeal of a 2016 memo that ended out-of-service orders for English-proficiency violations. Ahead of the order, violations typically resulted in citations, rather than the driver being kicked off the road.
The policy went into effect June 25. According to transportation intelligence firm FTR Intel, 28 percent of such violations have resulted in out-of-service orders from the issuance of the order through late September.
Many truckers and trade groups argue that lax enforcement of English-language requirements for CDL holders creates safety risks, especially when drivers can’t read road signs or communicate with other motorists or law enforcement.
Other industry players, as well as immigration advocates, say the enforcement indiscriminately targets foreign-born truckers who are legally permitted to be in the country. The moves have largely aligned with the Trump administration’s hardline immigration agenda. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), immigrants comprise about 18 percent of employed drivers.
At the UBS 2025 Global Technology and AI Conference on Dec. 2, J.B. Hunt CEO Shelley Simpson said up to 400,000 drivers could be impacted by the wider enforcement crackdown within two years.
“All states will be focused on a level of enforcement. To what level, I don’t know,” Simpson said. “We’ve heard good evidence in several states. I would say there’s no real rhyme or reason as to why the state has or hasn’t done it. That gives me confidence that there’ll be some level of enforcement.”
Overall, any restrictions would take a chunk of employment out of the estimated 3.1 million truck drivers in the U.S., BLS data says. For an industry that has seen attrition in recent years due to excess capacity compared to overall freight demand, trucking companies now have to prepare for a reality where capacity could shrink more rapidly.
“It’s important that we educated our customers so that they understood what potential impacts could be coming so that they are prepared and ready. We’re going to be more cautious than not about how fast regulation will really take hold and how much that will be enforced,” Simpson said. “There’s still a lot of capacity in the market. There needs to be a takeout of some capacity and for that to be more rationalized—or demand go up significantly. There’s still some room for that to really play out.”
Duffy posted the statement on X in response to a Wednesday Bloomberg report on the crackdowns, which highlighted multiple trucking companies that have been disrupted by the enforcement due to higher costs and labor concerns.
The administration’s concerns over trucking compliance and the CDL-issuing process gained broader attention after a fatal trucking accident on a Florida highway in August.
The licensed truck driver, undocumented Indian national Harjinder Singh, got in a crash that killed three people as he attempted to execute an illegal U-turn. That accident prompted the State Department to halt the issuing of worker visas for commercial truck drivers.
After the DOT conducted a national audit during the summer, Duffy sought to restrict the amount of foreign-born applicants that were eligible for a non-domiciled CDL, but that move has since been paused by a federal court.
In response to that court decision, Duffy said on X that he would fight the ruling.
“This is a CRISIS that requires immediate action,” Duffy posted on Nov. 15. “We won’t stop fighting to keep dangerous, unqualified truck drivers off the road.”
Earlier this month, the DOT said it would revoke certifications of nearly 3,000 CDL programs due to their failing to properly train students.
Secretary Duffy has said the administration would pull millions in federal funding across eight states for being non-compliant with CDL regulations, including California, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Washington.
In response, California said it would revoke 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs, while Texas notified nearly 5,900 drivers that their licensing privileges have been revoked.
According to the DOT’s letter to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the department allowed some CDLs to remain valid years after a non-domiciled driver’s work visa expired. In some cases, the validity would extend from four to eight years beyond when the licenses should have expired.
