Top brass from the Trump administration on Monday announced a "whole of government" crackdown on truck driver schools, state CDL testers, and DMV employees who issue CDLs to drivers who can't speak English and don't meet federal requirements.
- Department of Transportation, Department of Homeland Security, the White House and state Attorneys General announced a task force to override uncooperative blue state governors and crack down on CDL issuance.
- FMCSA immediately shut down 110 CDL schools and proposed an additional 160 inadequate schools for removal.
- DHS agents on Monday headed to 200 driving schools across targeting CDL-related businesses, schools, carriers, and employers.
- DHS is also going after 1,000 DMV employees suspected of accepting payments to help illegal aliens bypass driver’s license and CDL requirements.
DOT's Sean Duffy, DHS's Markwayne Mullin, White House anti-fraud task force Vice Chairman Andrew Ferguson and nine state Attorneys General gathered in Detroit to announce the "Joint Task Force Crossroads of America" partnership.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration boss Derek Barrs, recognized by Duffy as "leading the charge" against fraud at DOT, said the agency has initiated three new enforcement actions:
- Emergency removal of 110 CDL schools associated with more than 5,000 drivers who failed English language proficiency tests
- Launched a nationwide audit of third-party CDL skills testers and states’ oversight of the testers
- Results from 40-state investigation of additional training schools resulting in 160 notices of proposed removal from the Training Provider Registry.
In CMV crashes, "239 people have died that are correlated with someone that is not proficient in the English language," Duffy said.
"This is unprecedented," Barrs said of the crackdown on CDL schools.
Barrs said the emergency removal would be effective today and followed FMCSA finding schools that "passed at least 10 students who were cited" for ELP violations, and that the 110 schools together accounted for more than 5,000 ELP violators total. Authorities have issued more than 30,000 ELP violations in the last year and a half, according to Barrs.
Barrs said FMCSA audits of training schools had found obvious, egregious violations.
"Operators claimed that the classroom was the back of an open semi trailer, and the primary instructor was out of the country -- that should tell you something," said Barrs.
Other schools had inadequate space, unlicensed instructors, missing records, and fake classrooms, like a school bus in one case.
Duffy said they'd found 10 individual third-party CDL testers who had "given over 2,000 drivers licenses to people who can’t speak English."
Barrs said FMCSA along with Homeland Security Investigations would conduct a "nationwide audit on third-party testers."
FMCSA said that if a state is found non-compliant of federal regs, it can withhold funding, as it did in California and New York's case, and that ultimately it may lead to the decertification of the state's CDL program.
In addition to DOT's efforts, DHS agents have also deployed to CDL schools around the country.
DHS sweeps 200 CDL schools, goes after corruption at DMVs
DHS Secretary Mullin said that a fatal crash caused by a driver from Platinum Plus, a CDL school shut down by FMCSA, triggered a sting operation on I-40 last year, and now DHS is doing more.
DHS actions announced include:
- Homeland Security Investigations conducting on Monday "a synchronized surge at more than 200 driving schools across 23 Special Agent in Charge offices, targeting CDL-related businesses, schools, carriers, and employers."
- HSI to investigate "1,000 CDL-related business leads stemming from known or suspect business engaged in unsafe practices on the roadways and transportation-sector exploitation."
- More than 80 Notices of Inspection, multiple investigations, and indicators of fraudulent CDL issuance, unauthorized employment, identity fraud, shell companies, and broader transportation-sector exploitation.
Mullin specifically called out "chameleon carriers," saying often carriers and drivers put out-of-service "literally pull over, go into the truck stop, take off their DOT numbers, simply put another one right over the top of it" before going "immediately right back into business."
Mullin also pointed to "no name given" CDLs, which he said most frequently come from California and New York, as allowing for fraud and anonymity in the industry.
DOJ's "Crossroads of America" task force gives DOT leverage on California, New York
The partnership between DOT, DHS, the White House and state prosecutors intends to get around the longstanding bickering between federal authorities and states like California and New York that issue a large share of the CDLs to non-citizens.
"I no longer have to go to the governors ... we don't have to rely on them any longer because of this task force," said Duffy. "I have Markwayne, who is going to investigate, and prosecutors to prosecute" bad actors in trucking now.
"We didn't have the juice at DOT," he continued. "But now in partnership with Homeland and prosecutors, every single illegal driver on the road, we're going to come after you. So maybe it's better to cut up your CDL and find something else to do. This is not your space... get off the road."
DOT and DHS are also locked in a legal battle with 21 states over CDL records, which Duffy previously said the agency would fight "tooth and nail to prevent more senseless crashes by unqualified drivers.”
DOT and DHS requested from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) the entire Commercial Driver’s License Information System (CDLIS) database for the purposes of investigating "illegal practices" in CDL schools, according to the original lawsuit.
But since then, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) that blocks the DOT from obtaining more than 17 million CDL holder records.
Also present at the conference was the Coleman family and Delilah Coleman, a young crash victim who lends her name to Dalilah's law, a bill currently stalled in Congress that seeks to codify ELP regulations and essentially ban non-domiciled CDLs.
