California, Washington and New Mexico may lose millions of dollars in federal funding if they continue to fail to enforce English language requirements for truckers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday.
Duffy said the three states have 30 days to comply with federal English Language Proficiency (ELP) requirements after an investigation into a deadly crash in Florida earlier this month revealed the states made significant failures regarding the illegal immigrant truck driver who made an illegal U-turn.
“This is about keeping people safe on the road. Your families, your kids, your spouses, your loved ones, your friends,” Duffy said. “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.”
Duffy referred to the deadly Aug. 12 crash involving Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old who officials say hails from India and is in the country illegally.
Jesse Elison, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief counsel, said all three of these states will have 30 days to respond and present a corrective plan or else lose funding.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief counsel Jesse Ellison said the states have 30 days to respond with corrective plans regarding enforcement of the ELP rules. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
California could lose $33 million, while Washington and New Mexico could lose $10.5 million and $7 million, respectively, Elison and Duffy said.
Further steps could be taken should these states fail to comply, according to Duffy, though he declined to elaborate on the specifics.
“We don’t want to take away money from states, but we will take money away and we’ll take additional steps that get progressively more difficult for these states,” Duffy said. “There’s a lot of great tools that we have here that we don’t want to use.”
