There are thousands and thousands of big rig trucks that crisscross the roads in the Sunshine State every day. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) is pouring state resources into ensuring that those who are putting Floridians at risk are taken off the roads before they cause chaos and carnage of the sort that has horrified Americans across the country.
Such was revealed by a recent announcement from the state that a major, statewide operation is cracking down on foreign truckers using the English proficiency requirement, and has so far caught hundreds of general trucking violations and taken 176 drivers off the roads for various reasons, including not being proficient in English. Those totals come from inspections of over 3,300 vehicles, suggesting a very high rate of problems.
The operation was led by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, with the Florida Highway Patrol playing a particularly important role in the operation, for obvious reasons. It was FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass who announced the hugely successful four day operation, which was called Operation Highway Shield.
He began by describing the operation and its results, noting that there were a few thousand inspections conducted and nearly 200 drivers taken off the roads. He said, “Over four days, there were 3300 inspections conducted around the state of Florida. And out of those inspections, 176 drivers were taken out of service for a variety of reasons, to include 54 drivers for language deficiencies.”
Continuing, the commissioner noted that there were dozens of arrests made, along with dozens of immigration violation referrals, meaning that the campaign could play a role in immigration enforcement and encouraging self-deportations. He said, “There were 35 criminal arrests, and over 42, I believe, excuse me, 42 referrals made for immigration violations now.”
Adding to that, the commissioner noted that there were a number of truckers discovered to possess CDLs that stated there name as “No Name Given”, which is utterly absurd and infuriating. He said, “I saw several, actually some of the driver’s license that we would find wouldn’t even have a name on the CDL, literally, no name, but you got a CDL, no first name, and it even says no gain, no name given from other states, that is not from the state of Florida.”
Describing the horrific, dangerous situation that has been created by the lax licensing regime in those other states, the commissioner then explained, “So you’re having people with no names operating commercial motor vehicles with different types of endorsement running up and down your highways.”
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Additionally, during the press conference on the operation, the commissioner noted that various South American gangs were discovered to be involved with the trucking industry, with foreign-involved theft and crime being particularly prevalent problems discovered during the operation. He said, “We have South American theft groups, transnational criminal organizations involved in cargo theft, organized retail crime.”
But, fortunately, the Trump Administration and red states are cracking down on the issue, so it should be ameliorated as more and more resources are poured into keeping the roads safe and cracking down on those who are working here illegally, as is happening with programs like Operation Highway Shield.