Officials Crack Down on Fraudulent Truck Driver Training Schools

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin today announced a crackdown on fraudulent commercial driver's license (CDL) training schools, part of a new interagency effort to address safety and fraud concerns in the trucking industry.

The officials were joined by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Derek Barrs, White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud Vice Chairman Andrew Ferguson, and U.S. Attorneys Jerome Gorgon (Eastern District of Michigan) and Adam Mildred (Northern District of Indiana). Also present were Marcus Coleman and his daughter Dalilah, who was critically injured in a 2024 crash involving an unauthorized immigrant driver.

As part of the effort, USDOT emergency-removed 110 CDL schools tied to more than 5,000 drivers who failed English language proficiency tests, and launched a nationwide audit of third-party CDL skills testers and state oversight of those testers. DHS conducted a coordinated single-day sweep of more than 200 training schools across 23 states, with Homeland Security Investigations and ICE continuing related investigations into CDL-related businesses.

The agencies also announced the formation of the Joint Task Force Crossroads of America, a multi-state partnership between federal, state, and local agencies aimed at targeting fraud and criminal networks connected to the trucking industry.