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This story first appeared in The Long Haul 2025, an annual special section that celebrates National Truck Driver Appreciation Week by looking at Eastern Iowa’s trucking industry.

With good wages, a low bar to entry and an ongoing need for good drivers, long-haul trucking has become an important way for immigrants to the United States to make their way into the American economy.

But this spring, commercial truck drivers who learned English as a second language — and the companies that employ them — faced punitive federal regulations regarding English language proficiency. An executive order signed by President Donald Trump in April says that truck drivers who can’t speak or read English prof

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