In Florida, starting Friday, February 6, all driver’s license exams will be exclusively in English statewide. This was confirmed by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV), the agency responsible for issuing licenses and regulating all aspects of road safety.
The new regulation applies to all license classifications, including the written knowledge and skills tests administered orally to applicants. The change prohibits the use of translation services or interpreters during the exams.
Before this measure, the written knowledge tests for non-commercial licenses were available in multiple languages. Commercial licenses were only available in English and Spanish before this update.
The FLHSMV confirmed that it has already updated the testing system statewide to comply with the mandate starting this Friday. The agency will remove printed exams in other languages to ensure uniformity in the testing process.
The department explained in a press release that the goal is to promote responsible driving and understanding of traffic laws. The measure is another step toward tightening public policies targeting undocumented immigrants.
In July 2023, the DeSantis administration had already passed the sweeping SB 1718 law, which invalidated driver’s licenses issued in other states to individuals without a green card or permanent residency.
Regarding the safety policy, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles stated: “Florida is taking a leading role in road safety by requiring all driver’s license exams to be administered in English without an interpreter.”
The Ron DeSantis administration has been one of the toughest and most restrictive toward the immigrant population, especially those without legal status. The governor recently threatened mayors with dismissal if they instruct law enforcement not to cooperate with ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) operations.
But in the realm of traffic safety, the tragedy of August 12, 2015, in which driver Harjinder Singh made an illegal U-turn on the Turnpike, causing a crash that resulted in the deaths of three Haitian immigrants, served as a catalyst for implementing stricter controls on commercial drivers.
Singh, who is in custody and faces vehicular homicide charges, arrived in the United States in 2018 and obtained a driver’s license in California, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) at the time. The incident sparked a dispute between the Florida and California governments, and under the direction of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, some 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses were revoked for irregularities.
