Licensing Foreign Nationals as Truck Drivers is Killing Americans
The next time you see an 18-wheeler on the road, you better pray that the driver is competent, A surprising number of those behind the wheel of those monstrous vehicles are not.
The problem stems from the fact that 130,000 of the 1.2 million of those holding a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) are undocumented (illegal) aliens who obtained licenses through fraud, bribery or lax enforcement of the rule. In addition, there are potentially hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals who hold CDLs, many of whom cannot speak or read English – a minimum legal requirement.
The language requirement has been circumvented in several states. California, Illinois and New York have issued more than 1 million CDLs to undocumented individuals since 2023. The American Immigration Council reports that in Texas, 25 percent (95,000) CDLs have gone to undocumented individuals.
While the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requires CDL holder to be proficient in English — able to read signs and understand the rules of the road — thousands of truckers do not meet the minimum requirements.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), large truck crashes in 2023 killed more than 5,700 people—with 814 deaths involving drivers lacking English language skills. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reports that 1 out of 7 fatal truck accidents involves an undocumented driver.
One of the most tragic cases involved an accident in Wisconsin involving an undocumented truck driver who obtained a CDL in Illinois. Several motorists used CB radio to warn the driver of a large piece of metal of some type was dangling from the back of the trailer. He never understood the warning since he did not speak any English. The piece fell off, hitting a vehicle and causing it to burst into flames. Five young children died in the fire as their parents desperately tried to reach them.
It was later learned that the driver obtained his CDL through bribery – which kicked off a bribery scandal that resulted with Illinois Governor George Ryan going to prison – among others.
In 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order strengthening enforcement of English‑language requirements for commercial drivers. The order required all commercial truck drivers to demonstrate English proficiency — and rescinded earlier guidance that had allowed more flexible interpretations of the rule. The administration described the measure as a “non‑negotiable safety requirement,” emphasizing that the ability to read signs and communicate with officials is essential for preventing accidents.
Amazingly, the commonsense Order was met with mixed reactions. Industry groups supported the stricter enforcement — arguing that it would improve safety and reduce liability for trucking companies. Others, including a number of Democratic lawmakers and labor advocates, expressed concern that the policy could worsen driver shortages, lead to discriminatory enforcement and needlessly remove people from jobs.
Critics of the Trump Order also argued that the trucking industry relies heavily on immigrant labor, and that “overly rigid” language requirements could harm workers and reduce economic output. “Overly rigid”? The rule seems more like common sense.
I am inclined to believe that hiring foreign nationals with limited English skills – whether undocumented, here on some legal status and even naturalized citizens with limited English language skills. It is not a matter of immigration status. It is a matter of competence and common sense. Sop, there ‘tis.
holy crap batman, Horist wrote this junk and Oliver writes about the next election. What’s happenin????
These numbers are not supported by official sources.
Dunger they are supported by official sources. They are called victims. It’s amazing how much time that you spend under mining America.
Sethisdung: How does pointing our Larry has no official sources on these stats undermine America?
All victims of all accidents deserve our prayers.
However, truth should not be an accident either and it’s pretty easy to see falsehoods in Larry’s quest for fear and loathing.
The case of five kids died by undocumented CDL driver unable to speak English sticks out. Parents could not save is a warning sign. Five kids is unusual; I can’t fit two parents and five kids in any of my vehicles. Seems you would expect a little more as to the why’s of that. But, no names glares out. Fact checkers cannot confirm this accident. “There is no single report matching the exact details of “five kids die in a Wisconsin truck accident by an undocumented cdl driver” as a combined event.”
More so, going back to 2023, “Five people died in Milwaukee in May 2023 after the van they were in, driven by an adult who has since been convicted, ran a red light at high speed while intoxicated. The victims included four children (ages 1, 15, 15, and 17) and one adult. The driver was a U.S. citizen and her immigration status was not a factor in the reports.”
“In a Washington County crash in August 2022, an undocumented truck driver lost control on an icy road, crossed the centerline, and hit an SUV, killing three people, including a father and his 9-year-old son from the other vehicle.”
“In a January 2025 Dodge County crash, an undocumented immigrant, Hector Toscano Perez, driving a company pickup truck (not a full commercial truck/semi) while intoxicated and without a valid license, ran a stop sign, killing his passenger and injuring a family of five in the other car (the three children sustained minor injuries).”
“Four Teenagers Killed by a Semi (May 2024): Four teenagers in a pickup truck died after running a stop sign and being hit by a semi-truck in Dodge County. The semi-truck driver was treated and released with minor injuries. The teenagers were the at-fault drivers in this incident.”
It appears Larry has no names, dates, place, beyond Wisconsin, so it may have happened, but I can not corroborate. Can you?
To sum, “While there have been fatal accidents involving both multiple children and undocumented drivers in Wisconsin, the specific combination of five children killed by an undocumented CDL (commercial driver’s license) driver in a single truck accident does not appear in recent news reports.”
Just saying. I did not pursue his other annectdotes.
All accidents are tragedies and effects can last forever. I have been in head-ons, flips, side-swipes, none my fault, but the damage exist still. The fact is unfit drivers have been driving for years yet they still give CDLs to illegals, and don’t check language skills. Fix that first to solve for domestic and foreign as well.
Better yet, put E-verify in as the law of the land and problem solved. There are both Republican and Democratic bills and the bipartisan immigration bill included it too. No undocumented can work in America once E-Verify is the law.
But reacting to anecdotes, statistics that cannot be fact-checked against official sources, is fear and loathing to the nth degree.
His best data: “According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), large truck crashes in 2023 killed more than 5,700 people—with 814 deaths involving drivers lacking English language skills.” The total is wrong, it’s released as 5,472 and a decrease from 2022. The claim regarding 814 deaths specifically involving drivers lacking English language skills seems bogus give the official NHTSA 2023 data does not track language.
Besides that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
Use your head, Sethisdung, some of this stuff seems to be low hanging fruit when you use your noggin. Things like missing dates, names, are pretty good indicators.
Larry is not busted, but unless he validates some of these outages, not the best story.
Fear and loathing can be over with E-Verify.
A gentleman would apologize for that.
“The case of five kids died by undocumented CDL driver unable to speak English sticks out. Parents could not save is a warning sign. Five kids is unusual; I can’t fit two parents and five kids in any of my vehicles. Seems you would expect a little more as to the why’s of that. But, no names glares out. Fact checkers cannot confirm this accident. “There is no single report matching the exact details of “five kids die in a Wisconsin truck accident by an undocumented cdl driver” as a combined event.”
A very quick Wikipedia search for then-IL Gov Frank Ryan will lead to his bio; scroll to the part about the end of his career and the bribery scandal that brought him down and you will find reference to this accident. It apparently took place in the early-90s. As to the capacity of the vehicle, perhaps they were driving a full-size van…
Jeff, thanks, I could not believe Larry would be so far off. Great sleuthing. Nice to have an intelligent objective discussion. And yes they had nine kids in total and a Dodge Caravan. Always lusted, never could afford, so we stopped the kids…. (kidding, no pun intended).
This is not the smoking gun he makes it out to be. The primary cause here as you noted was corruption and bribery, not language. Not that language for certain licenses like cdls, drs, etc. should be a mandatory with hefty penalties for skirting the law. The top guy in this tragic scam WAS A REPUBLICAN and that guy would not have been driving except for that. It would not have been this tragic if a proper gas tank was installed also. For the scam, same thing happened in FL (democrat) with 1,200 Russians getting CDLs. For gas tanks, pretty rare tragedy. Not only is a puncture rare, but a puncture plus spark, plus required temperature, incredibly rare: ask mythbusters.
IMO, heck with the EO, pass a law and fix all national licenses, etc. that need English to require English. Don’t stop at CDLs, I wany my Pakistani Dr. Ernest Patel to be fluent. And to the naysayers, I say bugger off. There ain’t no politics in safety. The Fed sets the standards, the state operationalizes. If the State fails, take the right away. IL failed, FL failed, where else has Larry lived? (kidding)
In this case, over 30 years ago, while from Mexico, I can find no proof he’s undocumented, illegal or what. There were no charges, just a civil suit. Weird. Likewise the claim that he did not speak English is bogus; how well is questionable, and it seems reads well enough to pass the cdl test, according to reports in the links below.
Third, I have attached a stellar article which sums this guy as: superbly low functioning, underperforming human. In the civil case, the fact came out that his CB was broken, but he heard the horns honking, lights flashing, some from trucks, and kept going because he did not any cops to find issues. None of us would be arrested for that. Matter of fact, we’re supposed to drive to or call the cops. The light had been broken for a while before he took the wheel and other drivers had hit the road. Truckers are not required to have live CBs, so spoken language is really not a legal issue on this one, except way back when the CDL was issued. His English was bad, but no one proved he could not read nor understand. Does not change the fact that English needs to be spoken and read, well, to get a CDL. I am not certain he paid a bribe.
He asked for his brother to translate when the cops found him, but many immigrants do that even if they speak English, my FIL being one. He understood and could speak well enough, he just wanted to avoid the strange looks. That’s when the cops determined his English was poor, they really didn’t know for sure or how bad. He supposedly took the CDL written test as noted below.
Fourth, he was driving OK, straight and narrow according to accounts. That truck had been damaged for some time and, for certain, it was going on the road. He feared not being paid if he stopped; sounds like a shithead company that I am guessing forked out the $50m in the civil case. In court, he said he saw the trucker’s flashing, but did not pull over for fear of the cops finding issues, not being paid. Like I said, low-functioning human.
Fifth, and a big one, the minivan had an insufficiently shielded gas tank installed, pretty sure that’s a violation as well. It was a Dodge Caravan which had factory shielded tanks behind the rear axle with no known problems. Their tank was not factory installed. Whether they knew or not, I do not know, but someone knew. The tragedy would not have happened with a properly shielded tank. Accident yes, but probably not at this tragic level.
Bottom line: the Gov went to jail, his investigation was well underway when this firestorm ignited it. The trucking company, truck chassis leasing company, the truck dispatching company, gas tank installing company, all paid between $1M up to $50M in the civil suit. Guzman was not charged and not sure he even faced a civil suit. Civil suits are rarely justice.
The author of the piece points out that there is no direct tie in to undocumented. Comprehension of English did not seem to be a legal factor, chances are that truck was going down that road, it had before with other drivers at the wheel. A shielded gas tank would probably save all, certainly from a gas tank explosion which are pretty rare. Bribery to get licenses is the main culprit there. Each of the issues noted should be addressed, for all CDLs, trucking companies, drivers, and mechanics. Where do you even get an unshielded gas tank for example?
We should not take this too far, my FIL lived his life here just fine as his English got worse and his accent thicker as he aged. He was just fine and an adventurer all would have loved to listen to..
Anyone know the Trump penalty for driving without English in the new EO? How about the penalty for driving a broken semi? You can make EO’s about substance, but what’s the penalty for transgressing an EO. We need law.
Great reply, Jeff. I still say many of our licenses should require English, testing and monitoring should confirm it, and the EO is a great state, but knee-jerk, let’s get LAW for all licenses needing it after a review of all State and Federal licenses. And massive penalties for violations. We don’t need to rely on trucker’s morality, let’s rely on punishment if one does not follow the rule of law. Let’s do it once, do it right.
“Critics of the Trump Order also argued that the trucking industry relies heavily on immigrant labor…”
Any industry that relies heavily on immigrant labor predominantly does so in order to suppress wages.
Jeff, that’s what timetrvlr said as he laments his loss of this lawn jockey job….. Give me a break. These are jobs we won’t take.
You get more suppression from McDonalds, Target, HDepot and the like as they hire so low that workers need SNAP to get by. Walmart used to even help workers with the SNAP and welfare applications.
But before you blame them, blame yourself every time you buy a subsidized big mac or something with a red bulls eye on it
Raise the minimum wage to a living age. It’s ez: if you so 40 hours at mickey d’s, you make too much to get SNAP. basis math.
Dunger I once worked as a lifeguard. But a blue kid got me fired.
I was done, let Larry off his own petard, but something drew me back and now I hate to, but must conclude: First BUSTED of 2026.
Not that his concept is not wrong: CDL holders, all drivers, need to be able to read English, and understand.
The governance model is the Fed makes the rules, tests, etc. and the State operationalizes CDL issuance. Both have failed and both should investigate. The overarching design is Federal, as it should be, and the state just turns the crank.
Trump’s EO issue, as King, is fast, but if he can’t pass law on this one, is he asleep again? Seems like a no-brainer, low hanging fruit even if some idiots are against it. And given the breakdown, I think a full audit of things requiring English should be conducted. Should our doctors comprehend it? Police? If we failed here, should be not check other possibilities?
Larry’s story’s facts are mostly BUSTED though unless he can substantiate it. I took it (and him) apart as follows as I outline his major factoid points:
“the fact that 130,000 of the 1.2 million of those holding a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) are undocumented (illegal) aliens who obtained licenses through fraud, bribery or lax enforcement of the rule.” (no source)
“there are potentially hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals who hold CDLs, many of whom cannot speak or read English – a minimum legal requirement.”(using this “potentially” logic, in 2000, there were potentially 593,000 pedophile Larrys in the US based on Social Security name tracking; there might “potentially be 593,000 Larry saints too.)
“The American Immigration Council reports that in Texas, 25 percent (95,000) CDLs have gone to undocumented individuals.” (This one is darkly funny given AIC is a left-leaning immigration support organization; Larry is slumming to the left again, haha. AIC uses “foreign” so undocumented seems out of place as I cannot find them tracking that. Foreign includes legal, asylum, daca, and they don’t track percentage of those with fluent English. Unless Larry has proof. 18% of drive workforce is foreign, no doubt 25% for Texas makes sense.)
“Thousands of truckers do not meet the minimum requirements.” (Which requirements and source)
“According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), large truck crashes in 2023 killed more than 5,700 people—with 814 deaths involving drivers lacking English language skills.” (see previous post, but numbers misstated and NHTSA does not track language.)
“The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reports that 1 out of 7 fatal truck accidents involves an undocumented driver.” I cannot find support for this but “the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), reports that fatal crashes involving non-domiciled commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders accounted for just 0.31% of all fatal truck accidents reported through July 2025.”)
“One of the most tragic cases involved an accident in Wisconsin” (Jeff validated case, but either language or undocumented is questionable as primary cause)
Not Larry’s best story, until shown different, seems BUSTED
The EO is still great, Law would be better.