No English? Here’s the Numbers, Truck Drivers Busted in Montana

An illegal alien truck driver who can't speak English allegedly killed three people in Florida after making an illegal u turn on the interstate. This put a national spotlight on a big issue, the number of foreign truckers who can't speak English driving big rigs on our roads.

How big of a problem is it here in Montana? We caught up with Eric Belford, the Division Administrator for Motor Carrier Services here in Montana. They have the authority to place non English speaking truck drivers "out of service" in Montana.

Belford: "Because of I90 and I15, we have foreign truck drivers traveling through Montana every day, all day long, and our officers- they're interacting with them. Is it a problem? What I can tell you is, as of June 27th we've had 75 English language proficiency violations. 74 of those have been placed out of service. So we're averaging about one a day."

And that's just in the last two months.

Belford has 29 years in law enforcement, with 22 in MCV. He said the Trump Administration invoking an English language proficiency requirement is simply going back to the way things had been for the industry.

Belford: "The one thing I want people to understand out there is English language proficiency, we call it ELP, has been around- I've been in the commercial vehicle enforcement world since 1996, and it was around long before I started. It's always been a requirement that to hold a CDL in the United States, and that's never went away.

That started to change in the Obama years in 2015 and then again with Biden in the early 2020s.

Belford: "So in recent events, of course, President Trump, he signed the executive order for enforcing Common Sense Rules of the Road for American Truck Drivers, which spawned some good conversation about ELP. And in fact, in May of 2025, CBSA once again approved to add that to the out of service criteria, which was a big shift back. So the way it was done before, and I think, is a safer way to go.

What does Motor Carrier Services do in Montana? 

Belford: "So what our officers do, it's important work. They're full fledged law enforcement officers that attend the full Law Enforcement Academy. They're out there policing the movement of commercial motor vehicles. So the large trucks, predominantly anything over 10,000 pounds that's moving in commerce. We actually have about 26 patrol officers located throughout different portions of the state, and then we also operate all the weigh stations as well."