Trump launches massive trucking fraud crackdown — and what feds found at driving schools is WILD

BS BULLETIN:

The Trump administration announced a sweeping interagency trucking-fraud crackdown Monday, including emergency action against more than 110 commercial driving schools and proposed removal of another 160-plus.
Homeland Security Investigations is simultaneously targeting more than 200 driving schools and related businesses across 23 states as part of a nationwide enforcement surge.
Federal investigators found everything from unlicensed instructors and inadequate testing areas to one supposed “classroom” that was reportedly a school bus sitting behind a trailer.

If you’re wondering how somebody who isn’t qualified to drive an 18-wheeler winds up behind the wheel of one, the Trump administration says it has found part of the answer.

Start with the schools.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin descended on Detroit Monday with Justice Department officials and announced a massive federal crackdown on fraud throughout the commercial trucking industry.

And this isn’t just another Washington task force with a fancy name. Federal regulators are moving to boot more than 110 commercial driver’s license training providers from the government’s registry immediately. Another 160-plus schools have received notices of proposed removal following investigations in 40 states.

Then DHS joined the party.

Homeland Security Investigations launched a synchronized operation Monday targeting more than 200 driving schools and CDL-related businesses across 23 states. The allegations uncovered so far range from troubling to downright absurd.

🚨EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN🚨@USDOT is issuing an emergency shutdown of 110 CDL schools and removing an additional 160+ training providers for failing to meet @FMCSA standards.

These are the WORST OF THE WORST:

❌ INADEQUATE space for driving examination
❌ UNLICENSED training… pic.twitter.com/UlntrWoNKU

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) August 31, 2026

Investigators found instructors who didn’t have the proper licenses themselves. Some schools lacked enough physical space for students to perform the driving maneuvers they were supposedly teaching. Others couldn’t produce required assessment records.

And then there was the “classroom.”

According to the Department of Transportation, when investigators asked one training provider where its classroom instruction took place, the provider claimed its classroom was inside a school bus parked in the back of a trailer.

Nothing says “ready for an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer” quite like Driver’s Ed behind the double-wide.

I received my CDL when I was 21 years old. The process of obtaining it was extensive.

The Biden administration flooded millions of illegal aliens into our country and turned a blind eye to these reckless drivers who can’t even read American road signs.

Thanks to @POTUS Trump’s… pic.twitter.com/ZKZKb4FKnf

— Secretary Markwayne Mullin (@SecMullinDHS) August 31, 2026

But the funny part ends quickly.

DOT says drivers certified by the 160-plus schools now facing proposed removal have been linked to 239 commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities.

The 110 schools facing emergency removal were identified after federal officials examined roadside inspection records for commercial drivers who failed English-language proficiency requirements and traced those drivers back to the schools that certified them. Those 110 providers were associated with more than 5,000 drivers who failed English proficiency tests, according to DOT.

Once removed from the federal Training Provider Registry, the schools must immediately stop providing federally recognized entry-level driver training, including classroom instruction and behind-the-wheel training. Duffy says this is only one piece of a much larger cleanup.

“From states failing to follow the law to shady training schools and illicit companies, together we will tackle every link in the chain,” he said during Monday’s announcement.

DOT says more than 28,000 commercial drivers have been taken off the road for failing English proficiency requirements during the past year and a half, while states have been forced to cancel more than 30,000 licenses the administration says were improperly issued to foreign drivers. More than 8,000 unqualified training schools have also been purged from the federal registry.

And now federal investigators are going beyond bad training. DHS says its national investigation is examining suspected CDL fraud, unauthorized employment, identity-document fraud, money laundering, labor exploitation and possible connections to human smuggling, drug trafficking and cartel activity.

HSI says it has already distributed more than 1,000 leads involving known or suspected businesses engaged in unsafe practices or transportation-sector exploitation. One investigation involves a trucking company suspected of using people with B1/B2 visitor visas to haul domestic cargo. DHS says three drivers have been arrested and several firearms seized.

Another investigation is looking at state motor vehicle employees suspected of taking payments to help illegal aliens bypass driver’s-license and CDL requirements. Federal investigators say numerous people have been arrested for official misconduct and misappropriation of state identification documents. Still another involves medical practitioners suspected of improperly certifying examinations required for illegal aliens seeking CDLs.

The Justice Department is wrapping those efforts into a new multi-state operation called the Joint Task Force Crossroads of America, combining federal prosecutors in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio with DOT, FMCSA, FBI, DEA, HSI, ICE, ATF and state and local authorities.

Meanwhile, ICE is running its own operations aimed at commercial drivers and trucking companies, including Operation Guardrail, which specifically focuses on illegal aliens holding commercial driver’s licenses.

This isn’t a paperwork audit anymore. It’s an attempt to trace the entire chain — from the school that supposedly trained the driver, to whoever tested him, to the company that hired him and, where fraud is suspected, whoever helped him get there.

MY QUICK TAKE

There are plenty of immigration arguments where reasonable people can fight over policy.

This shouldn’t be one of them.

If you’re going to put somebody behind the wheel of a vehicle weighing tens of thousands of pounds, I’d like the instructor to actually be licensed, the driving school to actually exist and the student to actually know how to drive the truck.

Call me demanding. But the number that stops the jokes cold is 239. That’s how many commercial-vehicle fatalities DOT says are linked to drivers certified by the 160-plus schools now facing proposed removal.

Clean up the schools. Audit the testers. Follow the money. Prosecute fraud where investigators can prove it. And maybe establish one modest new federal standard: The classroom should not be a bus behind a trailer.