HIALEAH, Fla. — Alex López, a 41-year-old construction worker from Guatemala, can do the job without perfect English: he understands tools and directions. But he has struggled with Florida’s written driving exam, a 50-question multiple-choice test now offered only in English. After trying the computer-based test, he says he froze and felt sick.
Until this year, Florida offered the written driving test in Spanish. In February, state officials began requiring that both written and oral exams be administered only in English, with no translators allowed. The rule, put in place by Republican leaders and aligned with tougher national immigration rhetoric, took full effect in April.
That shift makes Florida one of the few states to demand English-only licensing exams — notable because it is the largest and most linguistically diverse state to do so. Roughly one in three Floridians speaks a language other than English at home. Critics say the change creates a new obstacle for immigrants in cities such as Miami and Orlando, where Spanish and Haitian Creole are commonly used.
Supporters of the rule point to safety concerns. The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles approved the policy less than a year after a commercial truck driver making an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike caused a crash that killed three people — an incident supporters cite as justification. Gov. Ron DeSantis called it a “good reform.” Rep. Berny Jacques (R-Seminole), who was born in Haiti, said unfamiliarity with road signs increases crash risk and argued the rule will encourage assimilation: “If you don’t know what road signs are saying, you’re more likely to get into a car accident that puts all of us in peril,” he said, also noting that voters approved English as the state’s official language in 1988.
Opponents counter that there is no evidence limited English proficiency makes drivers more dangerous, and they warn the rule will push some residents to drive without licenses in a state with limited public transit. Adriana Rivera of the Florida Immigrant Coalition said the policy risks criminalizing everyday activities: “We’re going to create a class of people that are going to be criminalized for something as simple as picking up a prescription,” she said, adding that Puerto Rican and other limited-English communities in Orlando will be especially affected.
Language conflicts have surfaced in Florida before. After the 1980 Mariel boatlift, Miami-Dade briefly restricted use of public funds for non-English programs; that policy was later repealed. Manny Díaz, a Cuban-American who once led Miami and chaired the state Democratic Party, said he was dismayed by the new test requirement: “My first thought was, ‘My God, I thought we were done with this,’” he said, pointing to Miami’s multilingual character as central to its success.
At Speedway Driving School in Hialeah, which serves many Latin American immigrants who need licenses to work and support families, the change has been immediate. Owner Yuri Rodríguez says enrollments have dropped as people fear they won’t pass. Instructor Johannes González now teaches mostly in Spanish but emphasizes memorizing English test words. He uses PowerPoint practice questions, highlighting English terms that share Latin roots with Spanish — velocity/velocidad, pedestrian/peatón — and trains students on likely English phrasing: “Maximum highway speed… seventy miles an hour.”
Classes have expanded, more students fail the first attempt, and the school now charges a flat fee allowing unlimited sessions. Older learners, especially those over 50, struggle most, González said.
In a packed classroom recently, newcomers sat under wall signs and worked through sample questions. One man had arrived from Colombia two weeks earlier; Yaima Fuentes Pérez, 41, emigrated from Cuba a year ago and said she needs a license to attend accounting classes. Fuentes, who was a journalist in Cuba, wished the test were still offered in Spanish. After practicing with González, she missed only one question on a practice exam and later passed the written test. López, meanwhile, failed again and returned to study.
For many, the new requirement has turned preparation into memorization and keyword recognition — learning the English prompts rather than understanding them fluently — to gain a credential that was once available in their native language.