Democratic California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer said during a Wednesday debate that requiring truckers to understand English was “racial profiling.”
The Trump administration initiated a crackdown on states that issue commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to unqualified drivers, including numerous illegal immigrants, following several high-profile accidents involving migrants who appeared unable to speak English or recognize basic road signs. The moderator of the debate, hosted by NewsNation in San Francisco, asked Steyer about one traffic stop in particular.
“Mr. Steyer, where do you draw the line on this? Should language proficiency for truckers be strictly enforced, even if it means that some of them will probably lose their jobs? You have 60 seconds,” co-moderator Frank Buckley of KTLA said.
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“Look, I agree with what was said, which is, we don’t know the context of this stop. But what I can say is this: racial profiling is illegal,” Steyer responded. “And, in fact, picking on people based on the color of their skin in the state of California is illegal.”
The Trump administration started its crackdown on language proficiency for CDL holders after a deadly August accident, allegedly caused by an illegal immigrant, who attempted to make an illegal U-turn on a Florida highway and left three people dead. The illegal immigrant reportedly failed an English proficiency test given by investigators and was unable to identify three out of four traffic signs.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy yanked millions of funds from California in October over its failure to enforce English proficiency standards, days after an illegal immigrant driving a tractor-trailer killed three people in an accident near Ontario, California, on Oct. 21 while allegedly under the influence of drugs. Duffy pulled $73 million from New York on April 16 for failing to revoke CDLs issued to illegal immigrants.
“You gotta speak English, you gotta understand road signs, you gotta be able to talk to law enforcement. If you get pulled over or there is a crash, law enforcement has to be able to communicate with you,” Duffy said during an Oct. 28 appearance on “Fox and Friends.”
In an April 14 post on X, Steyer issued a five-point plan to combat the federal government’s efforts to enforce immigration laws, including supporting efforts to place United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on trial in state courts.
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