.jpg&w=1920&q=75)
Illegal immigrant truckers and the commercial driver’s license (CDL) schools behind them are living through what Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy described as their “worst nightmare” thanks to a new nationwide crackdown on fraud plaguing the trucking industry.
Secretary Duffy and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced on Monday an interagency effort, which includes a coordinated enforcement operation involving more than 200 training schools in nearly two dozen states, the emergency removal of 110 CDL schools linked to “more than 5,000 drivers who failed English language proficiency tests,” and the start of a “nationwide audit of third-party CDL skills testers and states’ oversight of the testers.” The initiative also formed the Joint Task Force Crossroads of America “to safeguard the nation’s highway system and strengthen the security of our borders.”
Free with the Daily Briefing
85EssaysUnravel the Constitution
Hamilton, Madison & Jay’s complete case for America, free and searchable in the Publius Reader.
Free with the Daily Briefing. Unsubscribe anytime.
The announcement was made on the same day that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed 95 illegal immigrant truckers - the majority of whom had state-issued CDLs from either California or New York - were arrested in mid-August.
A Dead-End for Illegal Truckers
The emergency shutdown of more than 100 CDL schools was ordered after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) traced drivers who failed English Language Proficiency (ELP) requirements back to the schools that trained them. Using the Training Provider Registry, the agency was able to identify which schools “repeatedly certified drivers who did not meet federal qualification standards.”
Most of the schools that were shut down were in California, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas, with the remaining located in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, according to Fox News.
Duffy warned the effort wouldn’t just focus on the truckers themselves and CDL schools – companies who knowingly hire unqualified truckers will also be on the chopping block. “Companies, good companies who are hiring drivers who don’t speak English or who didn’t go to a well-qualified school: watch out. We’re going to come and look at you, as well,” Duffy said during a press conference on Monday. “Don’t hire people who can’t speak English, can’t read English, or you’re all going to be subject to this task force.”
If the Joint Task Force Crossroads of America doesn’t catch an illegal immigrant trucker, a questionable training school, or a company hiring them, CBP just might. From Aug. 10-14, Border Patrol launched a “multi-agency operation” targeting human and drug smuggling – but part of what they found was dozens of illegal immigrant truckers.
“We are committed to protecting our citizens from all international threats, whether that is from unlicensed or untrained drivers, or transnational criminal organizations engaged in human or drug trafficking,” Acting Chief Patrol Agent Dustin W. Caudle of the US Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector said in a statement.
Real-World Impact
While announcing the unprecedented crackdown, Secretaries Duffy and Mullin were also joined by Marcus Coleman and his daughter Dalilah, who suffered life-altering injuries in a car wreck caused by an illegal immigrant from India.
On June 20, 2024, Partap Singh, who was driving an 18-wheeler with a California-issued CDL, triggered a multi-car pileup by driving “at an unsafe speed” and failing “to stop for traffic and a construction zone,” a DHS release explained. Dalilah, who was just 5 years old at the time, suffered a broken femur and skull fractures, and was later diagnosed with diplegic cerebral palsy and global developmental delay.
So many Americans have been victimized by violent, careless illegal immigrants that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) started an initiative known as The Angel Families Project to highlight the devastating real-world impact of illegal immigrant crime.
The crackdown may be illegal immigrant truckers’ “worst nightmare,” but for Americans harmed by unqualified drivers, it’s a different kind of dream.
