270 Commercial Driving Schools Closed After Thousands of Failed English Tests

Multiple federal department heads on Monday announced an inter-agency effort to revoke the licenses of 270 commercial driver’s license (CDL) schools after thousands of drivers allegedly failed English proficiency tests.

A Department of Transportation release said that the administration will initiate the “emergency removal” of 110 schools that are associated with more than 5,000 CDL drivers who failed English tests. At the same time, the department will audit third-party CDL testers and various state efforts to oversee the testers.

Transportation Department Secretary Sean Duffy said 160 more schools were closed for improper facilities, unlicensed trainers, and other issues. Some schools, he added, did not have classrooms for training.

“You have fraud throughout the [CDL] school system,” Duffy said.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it also launched a “synchronized single-day sweep targeting more than 200 training schools across 23 states.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it formed a joint task force to strengthen border security and improve highway safety.

Framing the issue as an anti-fraud crackdown that was influenced by the White House fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance, Duffy said in a statement that to “fully root out the scourge of fraud, hold criminals accountable, and restore safety, we need the support of federal law enforcement.”

“As a result, far too many Americans have lost their lives because an illegal alien was behind the wheel,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, adding that DHS will help the Transportation Department root out fraud in the CDL issuance system to make sure that illegal immigrants don’t receive licenses.

Since the start of the second Trump administration in early 2025, the Department of Transportation removed 28,000 truck and CDL holders, such as bus drivers, for failing to speak English. The agency also forced states to shut down more than 30,000 licenses that were illegally issued to foreign drivers and removed more than 8,000 unqualified schools, according to the release.

In April 2025, President Trump issued an executive order calling for tighter enforcement of an existing federal law requiring commercial drivers to be proficient in English.

The announcement on Aug. 31 is the latest in a string of efforts Duffy launched to target truck, bus, and other commercial vehicle drivers who cannot speak English amid a series of high-profile crashes in recent months.

Last August, a crash on Florida’s Turnpike left three people dead. Truck driver Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old Indian national, faces three counts of vehicular homicide.

Earlier this month, Duffy indicated he would move to codify that all truckers and bus drivers meet mandatory English-language proficiency requirements.

Meanwhile, Duffy said in February that all truckers and bus drivers will have to take their commercial driver’s license tests in English. The move, he said, was designed to ensure drivers meet federal requirements to understand English well enough to read road signs and communicate with law enforcement officers.

Florida started administering English-only driver’s licence tests in February.

Nearly 44 percent of the 16,000 truck driving programs listed nationwide by the government may be forced to close if they lose their students after a review by the federal Transportation Department, released in December, found they may not be complying with minimum requirements.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.