The Trump administration says it will enforce English language proficiency requirements for commercial truck drivers.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday requiring commercial truck drivers to “understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language.”
The new order has already created fear among Mexican truck drivers who transport goods through the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, said Israel Delgado Vallejo a vice president of the Cámara Nacional del Autotransporte de Carga (CANACAR), a cargo shipping association in Mexico. They represent 12,000 truck drivers in Tijuana.
“With this new order being signed by the U.S. government, that really means that drivers are scared to cross the border,” Delgado said.
The Otay Mesa Port of Entry is the largest commercial crossing in California, according to the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG). More than $20 billion in goods crosses the border into San Diego each year.
The Trump administration said English language proficiency is a necessary safety requirement for drivers.
In response to the order CANACAR will help roll out a new, more comprehensive language training program for its members, Delgado said.
“We’ve got drivers driving for the last 30 years with no accidents,” he said. "We don’t really think it’s going to have a different impact after training our drivers."
The order requires the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to issue a new English language proficiency policy by the end of June.
