The Trump administration has turned its focus to schools that train illegal truck drivers with commercial licenses in an effort to make America’s roads safer.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has ordered an emergency shutdown of 110 commercial trucking schools that certified thousands of drivers who could not speak English, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.
Duffy, joined by federal officials and Angel families, held a news conference on Monday, August 31, to announce a historic interagency effort to fight fraud in the trucking industry.
In total, 270 training schools have been shut down nationwide. The 110 top offenders identified by DOT certified 5,000 drivers who failed English language proficiency tests.
The issue of illegal immigrants driving 18-wheelers has gained national attention after a series of traffic fatalities across the country.
The Joint Task Force Crossroads of America is a multi-agency, multi-state partnership to secure the nation’s highways and strengthen border security.
“To fully root out the scourge of fraud, hold criminals accountable, and restore safety, we need the support of federal law enforcement,” Duffy said. “From states failing to follow the law to shady training schools and illicit companies, together we will tackle every link in the chain.”
Duffy has come down hard on the states issuing non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses and now the DOT is targeting the training schools.
The Transportation secretary also told reporters that illegal immigrants who don’t speak English “don’t deserve to be in a big rig driving on American roads endangering American citizens,” The Hill reported.
In July, the DOT teamed up with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to go after the shady schools helping foreign nationals obtain non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses.
“Under the strong leadership of President Trump, DHS and ICE are delivering on our mission to protect Americans by taking these dangerous threats OFF our roadways and getting them OUT of our country,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. “Additionally, our partnership with the Department of Transportation will help root out CDL fraud so that illegal aliens are no longer able to obtain CDLs and put American lives at risk.
The states with the most schools impacted include California with 11, Texas and Pennsylvania, both with 13, and Florida with 10, per a Fox News interview with Duffy.
“It’s a long-standing rule that to be a commercial truck driver you have to speak English, read English, understand English,” Duffy said on Fox. “So, we had 110 schools that were responsible for at least 5,000 drivers who went through their schools and could speak no English.”
In a news release, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it sent 175 investigators in 40 states to conduct nearly 400 investigations of Entry-Level Driver Training providers.
As part of a probe into the English proficiency of commercial driver, the FMCSA identified training providers that “repeatedly certified drivers who did not meet federal qualification standards,” per Monday’s DOT release.
The investigations uncovered several serious cases of non-compliance, including 160 schools that failed to meet safety standards, curriculum standards and hands-on training.
The training schools operated with zero real trucks, driving yards or classrooms, Duffy said. Some operated solely online and had no physical location.
Drivers certified by these 160 providers are linked to 239 commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities, according to the DOT news release.
The DOT is also launching a nationwide audit of third-party CDL skills testers and states’ oversight of the testers.
“These third-party validators have been outrageous,” Duffy said on Fox. “They’re approving people who do not speak English and we’re not even sure they’ve gone through the skills tests necessary to get a commercial driver’s license for a big rig.”
The new Task Force is taking action on multiple fronts, including roadside enforcement efforts and ongoing investigations targeting CDL-related businesses and schools.
“I’m a regulatory agency, so I have limited men and women who work on my Task Force to go find these bad actors,” Duffy said. “We are coming for the fraudsters, the bad actors, the violators, and we are going to shut them down. And if we can prosecute, we will prosecute every single one of them to make sure this does not happen. We protect the American citizenry on our roads, whether you’re going to church or going to Walmart you deserve to be safe.”
Homeland Security Investigations, in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, DOT and FMCSA, is leading a national criminal investigation into public safety vulnerabilities and criminal activity in the commercial trucking sector.
The initiative focuses on CDL fraud, unauthorized employment, identity-document fraud, financial crime, money laundering, labor exploitation, and potential links to human smuggling, drug trafficking and cartel activity.
“Criminals who exploit our nation’s transportation systems through fraud and deception are not only breaking the law–they are putting the safety and security of the American public at risk,” Homeland Security Investigations Acting Executive Associate Director John A. Condon said. “HSI will bring the full weight of our investigative authorities, financial expertise and global law enforcement capabilities to this historic, whole-of-government effort.”
California resident and former truck driver Marcus Coleman has also joined the fight as a parent advocate after his daughter, Dalilah, was critically injured in a 2024 crash with an illegal immigrant behind the wheel.
He attended Monday’s press conference as well as testified during a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement hearing on sanctuary policies across the United States.
Coleman blasted Democratic lawmakers during Tuesday’s hearing and said “I reject your guys’ sympathy.”
“She didn’t ask for any of this,” Coleman said of his daughter, who has permanent brain damage and other health problems stemming from the crash. “The people that jumped the fence did though. They knew exactly what they were doing. …And every day something’s happening to somebody, and it is your guys’ fault. I hold each and every one of you responsible for it, and I always will.”
