Trump Promotes Veteran Trucking Push After 56,000 Immigrant Drivers Sidelined
President Donald Trump announced a federal "Freedom Haulers" campaign to train and recruit military veterans as truck drivers, responding to a Department of Transportation push that has sidelined roughly 56,000 immigrant drivers.[1]
DOT audits removed about 26,000 drivers for failing English-proficiency tests and canceled about 30,000 commercial licenses it found were improperly issued.[1] The Freedom Haulers plan promotes waiving CDL skills tests for recent military heavy-vehicle drivers and urges use of the GI Bill to cover 100% of CDL training costs.[1] New Transportation Department rules would limit non-domiciled commercial driver licenses to immigrants on H-2A, H-2B or E-2 visas and require testing in English; those rules are being challenged in court.[1] DOT says immigrants are about 20% of truck drivers and non-domiciled immigrant CDLs account for about 5% of licenses, roughly 200,000 drivers.[1]
DOT audits that found tens of thousands of improperly issued licenses and English-test failures prompted administration officials to seek veteran drivers as a quickest-available labor pool.[1] The sidelining of about 56,000 drivers is a central rationale for the campaign, even as legal challenges to the new licensing limits play out in court.[1]
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📌 Key Facts
- The article published July 30, 2026 describes a new federal 'Freedom Haulers' campaign to recruit veterans into trucking.
- DOT audits have removed about 26,000 drivers for failing English proficiency tests and canceled about 30,000 commercial licenses as improperly issued.
- The campaign promotes CDL skills-test waivers for recent military heavy-vehicle drivers and encourages use of the GI Bill to pay 100% of CDL training costs.
- New rules would limit non-domiciled CDLs to immigrants on H-2A, H-2B or E-2 visas and require testing in English, though these are being challenged in court.
- DOT says immigrants make up about 20% of truck drivers, while non-domiciled immigrant CDLs account for about 5% of licenses, or roughly 200,000 drivers.
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