The state of New Jersey, once a stronghold of non-domiciled CDL issuance, has not reported a single ELP OOS violation in 2026.
This comes after California, a state that rejected President Donald Trump’s April executive order mandating English for all truck drivers, lost $40 million in highway funding as a result of the rift.
[Related: California capitulation: CHP finally enforcing English language proficiency roadside]
The California saga was highly publicized, and sometimes downright nasty between the state’s governor and DOT Secretary Sean Duffy, but New Jersey, the 11th most populous state in the union, has transited DOT’s big immigration crackdown much more quietly.
In January, Overdrive reporting revealed the state was perhaps the only in the union that had resumed issuing non-domiciled CDLs following DOT’s September 2025 rulemaking seeking to all but outlaw CDLs for non-citizens.
While DOT had called out other states including Illinois, Utah, North Carolina, California, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania and Minnesota for trying to restart their non-domiciled CDL programs, it didn’t say anything about New Jersey.
On Feb. 11, DOT issued a new Final Rule doubling down on the previously paused rule, again ordering all states to pause issuance of non-domiciled CDLs. On Monday, March 16, that rule will take effect.
[Related: FMCSA issues Final Rule banning non-domiciled CDLs almost entirely]
New Jersey didn’t respond to an Overdrive query if the state was still issuing non-domiciled CDLs, but if it is, it has just a couple more days to do so.
On the ELP violations front, New Jersey’s state police did provide some clarity.
New Jersey recorded 254 ELP as OOS violations in 2025, according to data from Overdrive sister company RigDig.
However, just before the turn of the year, the trail went cold. Overdrive's RigDig violations dashboard, with data current through early February, shows no ELP violations issued during inspecitons in the state for 2026 so far.
“The New Jersey State Police Traffic Safety Bureau inspectors continue to enforce English Language Proficiency (ELP) violations as Out-of-Service violations,” a spokesperson said.
Then why no violations since early December 2025?
“An IT error caused difficulties with the inspection reporting system connecting to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration,” the spokesperson continued. “FMCSA has been advised of the glitch involving the lack of data being transferred, and efforts are underway to address the issue.”
For a full accounting of ELP violations in 2025, follow this link.
