by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News August 31, 2026

The Trump Administration has acted to close 270 driving schools which failed to enforce English proficiency standards for migrant truckers when issuing commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs).

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said 239 people have died in crashes caused by non-English speaking truck drivers since January 2025, with California issuing most of the licenses used by the truckers involved.

In one tragic instance, an illegal alien driver named Harjinder Singh who failed English and road sign tests and failed his CDL test 10 times before obtaining a license from California and Washington state, was charged in a Florida crash that killed 3 people.

“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,” Duffy said at a press conference in Detroit alongside Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and federal prosecutors.

Duffy announced that his department was removing 110 CDL schools from the federal Training Provider Registry, forcing them to “immediately cease all operations.” The schools had been found to have trained 5,000 enrollees later found to be unable to speak English.

Another 160 schools were suspended for failing to meet training facility standards — sometimes claiming a single truck or small parking lot comprised their training center.

“The last administration allowed truck driving schools to self-certify to say that they meet all of the federal standards to be a certified truck driving school. What we found is many of those schools don’t actually meet that standard,” Duffy said.

“Platinum Plus Truck Driving School in California certified 36 drivers who were later cited for these English language proficiency violations, and one of these trainees killed someone in Oklahoma,” said Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Derek Barrs .

“ASC Technical Institute in Texas certified 58 of these drivers, and one of these trainees ran a stop sign and killed a local man in a Texas county.”

Of the 110 CDL schools being shut down over English proficiency violations, Barrs said that “every single one of these schools passed at least 10 drivers who were subsequently cited for [lack of] English language proficiency during roadside inspections by law enforcement.”

Mullin, a former Oklahoma congressman and senator who said he received a CDL when he was 21 years old, recalled the strict training he was forced to undergo.

“I had to walk around the truck and explain the components of the truck and prove that I could even bleed the air brakes, where they’re at, then I got into the truck and had a drive on a long road test,” he said.

Mullin added that “almost every one” of the illegal alien drivers involved in deadly and near-fatal incidents were “given their CDLs in sanctuary cities.”

“By far, the worst abusers are in California under [Gov.] Gavin Newsom’s leadership,” he said. “It doesn’t just affect California. It affects our entire country.”

250 Years of Freedom Is At Risk

  Trump Administration shuts down 270 truck driving schools; ‘Worst abusers in California, WorldTribune.com