(The Center Square) – Federal authorities have shut down several training schools for commercial driver’s licenses in New York and New Jersey, claiming they were passing applicants who lacked basic English proficiency.
The U.S. Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security announced Monday that they have issued an “emergency executive shutdown” of 110 driving schools for English-language proficiency violations and another 160 schools for failing to meet federal training regulations.
The CDL schools are located in 23 different states, including three in New York, and three in New Jersey, according to the federal agencies.
“We want well-skilled, well-trained truck drivers on American roads,” Duffy said in remarks at a Detroit event, where he vowed to crack down on “fraudulent” truck-driving schools. “If you’re here illegally and you can’t speak the language and you’re not well-trained, you don’t deserve to be in a big rig, driving American roads, endangering American citizens.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requires commercial vehicle drivers be able to read and speak basic English, understand highway traffic signs and traffic signals, among other requirements.
But Duffy said Monday those standards were loosely enforced by previous presidential administrations, which compromised public safety.
“We have schools that know the rule and still pass people through who can’t speak the language,” Duffy said in his remarks.
Duffy said the lack of enforcement has created public safety risks, and endangered lives. He said 239 people have died in crashes caused by non-English speaking truck drivers since January 2025 when Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term.
Homeland Security Secretary MarkWayne Mullin said Monday that most of the “illegal immigrant” drivers involved in deadly and near-fatal incidents were “given their CDLs in sanctuary cities.”
“These individuals are dangerous, and because of the failure from the previous administration, from the Biden administration, they’ve killed hundreds of people,” Mullin said. “And unfortunately, injured thousands.”
Homeland Security has arrested more than 800 truckers for “unsafe driving” during a three-day operation in late July, including more than three dozen who could not speak English, Mullin said.
To date, the DOT has revoked nearly 9,500 commercial licenses for failing to meet the president’s reinstated English-language proficiency requirements.
The Trump administration is also trying to prohibit states from issuing non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses. A federal appeals court judge blocked the policy changes in November, but several states have paused new CDL applications as the legal challenge plays out.
In December, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to freeze $73 million from New York. He said issuing commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants could result in the “total decertification” of the state’s CDL program.
The state has previously defended its policies on commercial licenses and accused Duffy of “lying about New York state once again in a desperate attempt to distract from the failing, chaotic administration he represents.”
In a statement, the New York state Department of Transportation said it wasn’t able to comment about specific New York-based CDL training programs that were shutdown Monday because federal authorities “declined to provide any information on the schools they allege are creating fraud in the trucking industry.”
“The Department of Motor Vehicles is committed to the safety of New York’s roads. We follow all applicable federal laws in providing driver licenses, whether commercial or non-commercial, issue licenses only to eligible applicants, and follow all guidelines that govern driver data.”
