The Trump Administration's Latest Crackdown On Fraud In CDL Schools Sure Looks Like Another Way To Go After Immigrants

Since good old President Trump and his reality TV bestie Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced their takedown of fake and fraudulent commercial driver's license (CDL) schools in 2025, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) have reportedly removed 9,832 "scam" schools. (Oddly, the complete list only contains 9,831 of them.) Now, the latest literature released by USDOT plans on taking this crackdown to the next level by partnering with the Department of Homeland Security to go after foreign drivers and those who fail to speak English — all in the name of keeping America's roads safe.

In the USDOT's statement, Duffy was quoted saying, "We've knocked over 24,000 drivers off our roads for failing to speak English, forced states to cancel over 28,000 licenses illegally issued to foreign drivers, and purged over 9,500 unqualified training schools from our FMCSA registry." He added, "DHS will be a force multiplier of our efforts to clean up America's roads. President Trump is using every lever at his disposal to ensure the safety of American families."

I don't know about you, but I never thought of a foreign truck driver trying to make a life in America — which is still oddly better than where they came from — being a threat to my life and family. But DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin says that "Too many American lives have been lost in completely avoidable accidents because illegal aliens have been granted commercial driver's licenses to drive trucks and 18-wheels on America's roadways."

Statistics say otherwise. The Trump Administration published in its Final Rule from February of this year that 17 fatal trucking accidents, causing 30 deaths in 2025 were likely caused by noncitizen truck drivers, which is less than one percent of fatal crashes caused by truckers each year. I also have no idea where they got those statistics... so do with that what you will.

Yet if the administration really wanted to help prevent deadly roadway accidents with large trucks, it could take a closer look at an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) article from 2025 for ideas on how to really help the industry. The IIHS found in some states more than 20 percent of truck drivers admitted to dozing at the wheel, logging long miles due to either driver shortages or a need for that sweet overtime pay because the job pays so horribly. And those behind the wheel for more than eight hours were found to be twice as likely to crash. It says nothing about driver's ability to read English being a risk driver. As someone who has driven in other countries quite a bit, I have to say; it's not that hard especially if you drive for a living. I don't speak French, Spanish, Dutch, or German, but I drive often in countries that speak those languages and haven't gotten a ticket yet. 

It's not to say that there are not fraudulent schools or practices in the trucking industry. There's likely a reason why 109 of the 1,426 schools the FMCSA investigated over five days earlier this year voluntarily removed themselves from the training provider lists. The other 448 schools provided notices were said to have failed to meet basic safety standards, hired unqualified teachers, improper vehicles, etc. And yeah, that would be problematic.

Trump's administration has been on a war path to getting immigrants out of the U.S. since its first day at the White House. It wasn't long after taking office that Trump signed an executive order (March 2025) that made English the nation's official language. He signed another order in April of last year, "Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road For America's Truck Drivers," that renewed a requirement for truck drivers to be able to communicate in English as well as read highway signs and complete their tests. In December 2025, Duffy announced the removal of nearly 3,000 commercial driver's license training providers from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's training facility registry, and that number has since grown.

And while the administration was already targeting immigrant drivers, it seems to have doubled-down this month, despite many of these individuals following the newly edited entry-level driver training (ELDT) requirements. The latest update allows foreign individuals with green cards or permanent resident cards, as well as H-2A (temporary agricultural workers), H-2B (temporary non-agricultural workers) and E-2 (treaty investor) visa holders are able to hold a CDL license. Those who were here with temporary status, like DACA recipients and refugees who also lost their CDL licenses, at least 200,000 of them.

One of those 200,000 individuals was former truck driver Mynor Solares, who was brought to the U.S. illegally from Guatemala when he was just two years old. He enrolled in DACA at 14, which allowed him to work in the only country he's ever known. Living here almost his entire life, he worked as a truck driver, with his own trucks for the last 12 years, up until April when the new ELDT Final Rule prevented him from renewing his CDL licensing.

Solares told PBS in an interview, "They use the word safety. You're using it as a disguise. I believe your intentions are different, and safety could be one of them, but you're using that more of a playing card more than reality than what you're really trying to do." He added, "I think they're trying to push their immigration agenda into the trucking industry."

In an industry already struggling with a lack of drivers eliminating 200,000 of them, especially experienced ones like Solares, seems irresponsible. But don't worry, Trump has a plan. At a summit in Carlisle, Pennsylvania last week, The New Republic reported that Trump informed the crowd that his administration would get illegal alien truck drivers replaced with "proud American veterans. ... We're going to take veterans, and we're going to teach them a lot about driving trucks."

That's a big assumption. Truck driving is an incredibly difficult job both mentally and physically. It's a gig that offers low pay for long hours away from family and home. There's a reason such jobs often fall to immigrants who are here struggling to make a better life for themselves–Americans won't do them.