Gov. Mark Gordon has signed into law a bill that allows sheriffs and other local law enforcement to fine or jail commercial truck drivers who aren’t sufficiently proficient in English.
Previously, only Wyoming Highway Patrol officers were trained and certified to do so.
Now, all levels of law enforcement will be allowed to decommission trucks driven by drivers who can’t pass an English proficiency test.
“It creates a $1,000 penalty, and they're able to take the driver out of service and penalize them,” said Sen. Pappas (R-Cheyenne), who chairs the Senate’s Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee. “And, if they're caught again, then there's an additional $1,000 penalty and there's some jail time also attached.”
The new law seeks to make Wyoming’s highways safer by ensuring that commercial drivers can communicate with other drivers and read road signs. This new law aligns the state with an executive order signed by Pres. Trump last April that requires commercial drivers to be able to fill out entries in reports, communicate with the public and read road signs.
Lgt. Kyle McKay testified that they’ve already seen a need for such expanded enforcement.
“ From June 25, 2025 to January 31, 2026, the Wyoming Highway Patrol has had 775 violations for this particular regulation within Wyoming,” McKay said of the current version of the law. “Those drivers, all 775, were placed out of service. And we've had 19 repeat offenders that have been incarcerated on the violation itself.”
McKay said they expect that by expanding this law, many more trucks will be taken off the road.
But Laramie resident Kendra Cowley expressed concern with this expanded law.
“ Providing law enforcement with a subjective power to end someone's career on the spot, based on their language skills, is a precedent that I am personally terrified of setting,” Cowley said.
“ If this were truly a concern about safety, I think we would consider how the additional stress and anxiety of racial profiling and potentially losing your livelihood during a random truck stop will impact a driver's ability to focus on their job and on the road. To me, HB 32 doesn't improve safety. It creates an enforcement system designed to intimidate and exclude immigrant workers,” she said.
Cowley said this law could also hurt farmers and ranchers who rely on commercial drivers to ship their animals and harvests.
The law takes effect immediately.
