TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida law enforcement will increase inspections at checkpoints to make sure all truck drivers are documented and can speak English following a deadly crash earlier this month.
On Monday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and other agencies announced all 23 of the state’s agricultural inspection stations will be used for immigration enforcement.
“There is major liability here,” said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. “It’s hard to imagine a situation where somebody doesn’t speak English can actually go through one of these exams and receive, you know, the necessary authorization. If you can’t read street signs, how are you going to drive large commercial vehicles, 18-wheelers, tractor-trailers in a safe manner.”
This comes after Harjinder Singh, a truck driver who was later discovered to not be a legal U.S. citizen, allegedly killed three people after making an illegal U-turn on Florida’s Turnpike.
Uthmeier said Singh was issued a full-term CDL in the last three years from both California and Washington, despite him failing an English proficiency test after the crash.
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Immigration Attorney Rebecca Black said she thinks this policy would harass and target a lot of out-of-state truckers.
“I don’t think any trucking company would risk, you know, valuable merchandise and the valuable truck with somebody who’s undocumented and doesn’t have a driver’s license,” said Black. “So I’m not sure what the point is.”
Uthmeier also announced he was sending a formal letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, asking them to revoke commercial driver’s license (CDL) authority and related federal funding from California and Washington.
Read the full news release from Uthmeier here.
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