Vice President JD Vance used a Monday speech in Michigan to hammer the Biden administration over its handling of commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), arguing that lax rules under the previous administration put American families at risk and allowed illegal immigrants to take jobs from qualified drivers.
Speaking to a crowd that included truckers, Vance commended Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for “doing an amazing job” and working to keep U.S. roads safe, according to remarks reported by Breitbart. But he reserved sharp criticism for the prior administration, claiming it had “allowed American workers and American drivers to be endangered” and had permitted illegal migrants to commit fraud to obtain CDLs.
Vance: English Proficiency and Legal Residency Are ‘Basic Common Sense’
Vance framed the issue in stark terms, saying the central principle is simple: “if you want to drive a big truck on America’s roads, you ought to be able to speak English, you ought to be a legal resident of the United States of America, and you ought to have basic qualifications.”
He went further, describing the stakes for everyday families. “I don’t want a person who can’t even read the road signs to have a CDL in the United States of America. It’s basic common sense,” Vance said, adding that his own children ride on roads shared with commercial trucks.
The vice president also praised truckers themselves, calling them “people who spend long hours away from their families” and “work their fingers to the bone,” while crediting them with “keeping our shelves stocked” and “keeping gasoline at the pump.”
Context: Biden-Era Transportation Rules Under Fire
Vance sought to provide “proper context” to the fraud, asserting that under former President Joe Biden, “anybody was allowed on the road.” He claimed that Biden’s transportation secretary “made it harder for state governments to enforce the rules,” including requirements that commercial drivers “actually read and write and understand the English language.”
His remarks come on the same day that Duffy and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced a crackdown on 270 fraudulent CDL driving schools. According to the announcement, those schools failed to enforce English proficiency standards for migrant truckers, along with other violations.
The coordinated action signals the Trump administration’s broader push to tighten immigration and workforce regulations, particularly in industries where illegal immigrants may compete with U.S. workers. Vance’s speech in Michigan — a key battleground state with a significant trucking and manufacturing workforce — was an attempt to frame the issue as both a safety concern and an economic one.
Critics of such measures have previously argued that English proficiency requirements can be overly restrictive and that the trucking industry relies heavily on immigrant labor. However, Vance and administration officials maintain that safety and legal compliance must come first.
The crackdown on CDL schools is part of a broader effort by the administration to audit and, where necessary, shut down operations that allegedly skirt federal and state licensing rules. Officials say the goal is to ensure that every commercial driver on American roads is properly qualified — and legally present.
As the political debate over immigration continues to intensify, Vance’s remarks are likely to resonate with voters concerned about both border security and workplace fairness. For now, the administration is moving forward with enforcement actions aimed at cleaning up what it calls a broken system.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/08/31/jd-vance-excoriates-democrats-giving-cdls-illegal-aliens/