White House Wants Veterans to Replace Immigrant Truckers Who Lost Their Licenses in Crackdown

Military.com ^ | Jul 24, 2026, 1:24 PM EDT | Josh Funk

[E. Pluribus Unum]

A new campaign will promote programs that let veterans skip the required skills test for a commercial driver's license.

The Trump administration wants soldiers to consider becoming truck drivers when they leave the military to help replace the tens of thousands of immigrant drivers who lost their licenses in a crackdown this year.

The campaign will be part of a broader interagency effort to help veterans find good civilian jobs that the White House plans to announce on Monday.

The Transportation Department began enforcing existing English language requirements for truckers last summer. Concerns about truck driver qualifications then took on more urgency after an August crash in Florida, when a truck driver performed an illegal U-turn that killed three people. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that driver, who is from India, should never have been licensed in the first place.

Audits conducted in every state uncovered numerous non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses that remained valid long after an immigrant's work permits had expired or were issued without properly verifying their citizenship status.

Since then, about 26,000 drivers have been pulled off the road for failing to demonstrate English proficiency, and the Transportation Department said 30,000 commercial licenses were canceled because they were issued illegally. The federal government has tried to withhold millions of dollars of highway funds from California and New York for failing to comply and revoke thousands more licenses, but that has wound up in court. Several other states — including Pennsylvania, Minnesota and North Carolina — have been warned they are at risk of losing funding.

[oldtech]

I always thought a long haul truck driver had a pretty good job. Is this not still true or is it?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Veterans are not allowed to bypass standard skill or safety requirements.<./i>

And the headline doesn't even imply that. I took it to mean they would steer veterans who didn't have good job prospects in civilian life to be truck drivers because there is high demand for them and if they did it in the service they already have the skill.

There are so many homeless veterans, and my gut feeling is it is because military life doesn't prepare you for civilian life and they have a hard time finding employment.

Truck driving seems like a perfect fit.

[Mr. Blond]

No, it’s a terrible job, and it will soon be replaced by autonomous driving.

[trebb]

Whether or not the military prepares one for civilian employment depends on the career field. There are many Hi-Tec careers that provide excellent credentials. I’d imagine the homeless and others having trouble with employment are the “grunts” that have been put under fire, watched buddies die, been permanently injured (both physically and mentally).
I love that there are programs like “Tunnels to Towers” and such, but I find it obnoxious that there’s even a need for them - the same government that put them in harms way should take good care of them and their families.
I spent 24 years in AF uniform and my career progressed from Communications/Crypto repair, to teaching communications equipment and eventually running a SCIF with 22 AF/Navy/Army troops developing courses for NSA’s original world-wide secure network, then courses for other “acronym” Intel agencies, and then secure networking and apps for war-planning and war-fighting. When I finished up (15 years after hanging up the uniform because I “double-dipped” and became a DoD Civilian for the same type courses), it morphed into Cyber Security. I was lucky enough to have actually learned enough to max out the 4 areas of enlistment exams and had my choice of career fields - many, especially with the piss-poor public “education” system don’t get those choices and many pay dearly when they become some of the “boots on the ground” troops.