Three states could lose millions in federal funding if English is not enforced for truck drivers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has warned.
The Trump administration has targeted California, Washington and New Mexico after a 28-year-old Indian native driving a semi-truck with a trailer is accused of making an illegal U-turn in Florida and killing three people, aged 30 to 54 years old, earlier this month.
“This is about keeping people safe on the road. Your families, your kids, your spouses, your loved ones, your friends,” Duffy said Tuesday. “We all use the roadway, and we need to make sure that those who are driving big rigs — semis — can understand the road signs, that they’ve been well trained.”
An investigation into the deadly crash found what Duffy called significant failures in the way all three states are enforcing rules that took effect in June after an executive order by President Donald Trump.
Truckers are supposed to be disqualified if they can’t demonstrate English proficiency, and Duffy said the driver involved in the August 12 crash, Harjinder Singh, should not have been given a commercial driver’s license in Washington and California due to his immigration status.
Singh has been living in the U.S. illegally since 2018, according to federal authorities. He and his passenger were not injured when a minivan slammed into his trailer as he made the U-turn.
Duffy also said New Mexico should have taken Singh off the road for not speaking English after he was pulled over last month, because it’s claimed he later failed a test given by Transportation Department investigators after the Florida collision.
Singh has been charged with three state counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations and he was denied bond on all charges.
Millions of people have signed a petition urging Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Board of Executive Clemency to reexamine Singh’s case, arguing he did not have any criminal intent or history.
The Transportation Department said California has conducted roughly 34,000 inspections, with at least one violation since the new language standards took effect, which require truck drivers to be able to recognize and read road signs and communicate with authorities in English.
But only one inspection out of thousands involved an English language rules violation that resulted in a driver being taken out of service. And 23 drivers with violations in other states were allowed to continue driving after inspections in California.
Duffy cited similar statistics for the other states, with Washington finding more than 6,000 violations of safety rules during inspections, but only pulling four drivers out of service for English language violations. New Mexico has not placed any drivers out of service since the rules took effect.
Duffy said the states will lose money from the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program if they don’t comply with the rules within 30 days.
California could lose $33 million, Washington could lose $10.5 million and New Mexico could lose $7 million, according to the transportation secretary.
In response to the Trump administration’s threats to target funding, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office wrote on X Tuesday, “This is rich.
“The Trump Administration approved the federal work permit for the man who killed 3 people — and now they’re scrambling to shift blame after getting caught. Sean’s nonsense announcement is as big a joke as the Trump Administration itself.”
Homeland Security officials have disputed that Singh obtained a work permit during Trump’s first term.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office told The Independent, “We are aware of recent claims regarding the enforcement of these [language] regulations and are actively seeking more information from the relevant federal and state partners.”
“Initial reports suggest that these claims relate to a small number of roadside incidents over a three-month period,” the governor’s office said. “It’s important to note that these incidents do not necessarily involve drivers licensed in New Mexico, as commercial trucks travel across state lines.”
Grisham’s office said it’s “clear” from video footage of New Mexico State Police’s traffic stop of Singh near Raton that he “understood English.”
“We believe that a full review of the incidents in question will demonstrate that New Mexico is in full compliance with federal law and that New Mexico State Police are effectively enforcing safety regulations on our roadways,” the office added.
The Independent has also reached out to the office of Washington Governor Bob Ferguson for comment.
