{"id":357763,"date":"2026-07-30T16:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357763\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T16:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:57:09","slug":"immigrant-truck-drivers-train-at-miami-dade-college-amid-english-proficiency-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/357763\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigrant truck drivers train at Miami Dade College amid English proficiency crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla.  \u2014 For nearly a year, federal and state agencies have been on the hunt. Tracking, checking, and targeting commercial vehicle safety violations, criminal activity, and threats to Florida\u2019s transportation network. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The crackdown set off after a truck driver, who authorities said was in the country illegally, made an illegal U-turn that caused a crash that killed three people on the Turnpike in Saint Lucie County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Since then, the industry has been on high alert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of disruption in this industry,\u201d said Osvaldo Canto, an instructor with the <a href=\"https:\/\/ce.mdc.edu\/contentManagement.do?method=load&amp;code=CM000014\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/ce.mdc.edu\/contentManagement.do?method=load&amp;code=CM000014\">Commercial Driver License program at Miami Dade College<\/a>. \u201cIn our opinion, it was needed because we were seeing a lot of things going on that they were not supposed to be happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Canto said enrollment in the program has boomed. New and experienced drivers want to comply with state and federal requirements. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThey need to have basic English,\u201d Canto said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The U.S. Department of Transportation has been enforcing the executive order. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced states couldn\u2019t issue commercial licenses to drivers who couldn\u2019t speak English. Law enforcement checks the driver\u2019s language skills during traffic stops or inspections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Luis Garcia is a student in the program at Miami Dade College. He is taking English proficiency courses at MDC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m originally from Cuba,\u201d Garcia said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Critics say the increased enforcement unfairly targets immigrants, and it is to blame for a shortage of truck drivers. Canto hopes it will just make the roads safer. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Related story: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/florida\/2026\/07\/24\/white-house-wants-veterans-to-replace-immigrant-truckers-who-lost-their-licenses-in-crackdown\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/florida\/2026\/07\/24\/white-house-wants-veterans-to-replace-immigrant-truckers-who-lost-their-licenses-in-crackdown\/\">White House wants veterans to replace immigrant truckers who lost their licenses in crackdown<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 For nearly a year, federal and state agencies have been on the hunt. Tracking,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-357763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}