Trump Administration Launches MAJOR Crackdown on Fraudulent CDL Schools

Illegal alien truck drivers pose a huge danger on American roads.

In the latest move to tackle this issue, the Trump administration is targeting the source — namely, the truck driving schools that unlawfully hand out commercial driver’s license to non-citizens.

Today, it was announced that the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Transportation are partnering up to crack down on fraudulent CDL schools.

This includes launching a sweeping investigation into 75 truck driver schools suspected of helping illegal immigrants get CDLs.

Bill Melugin of Fox News has the details:

NEW: DHS and DOT have announced they've identified 75 entry level truck driver CDL schools across the US that are suspected of fraudulently helping non-citizen drivers qualify for CDLs, and the agencies are partnering to investigate them, with HSI and DOT already visiting some of… pic.twitter.com/o6MiZBTWA5

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 16, 2026

NEW: DHS and DOT have announced they’ve identified 75 entry level truck driver CDL schools across the US that are suspected of fraudulently helping non-citizen drivers qualify for CDLs, and the agencies are partnering to investigate them, with HSI and DOT already visiting some of the schools to probe them. Some of the schools are suspected of falsifying training records, providing improper certifications, and failing to properly train the drivers.

Statements via DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin & DOT Secretary Sean Duffy:

“Too many American lives have been lost in completely avoidable accidents because illegal aliens have been granted commercial driver’s licenses to drive trucks and 18-wheelers on America’s roadways,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “DHS law enforcement is partnering with the Department of Transportation to eliminate CDL fraud, strengthen the integrity of the CDL system, and investigate commercial driver’s license schools throughout the country. This is a whole of government approach, to keep America’s roads safe.”

“USDOT has spent the last year rooting out bad actors from our trucking industry,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “We’ve knocked over 24,000 drivers off our roads for failing to speak English, forced states to cancel over 28,000 licenses illegally issued to foreign drivers, and purged over 9,500 unqualified training schools from our FMCSA registry. DHS will be a force multiplier of our efforts to clean up America’s roads. President Trump is using every lever at his disposal to ensure the safety of American families.”

A DHS press release confirmed the partnership:

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it would join the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in its mission to crack down on fraudulent and illegal practices in commercial driver’s license (CDL) schools.

Through this new partnership, DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) will work with DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to identify and address fraud regarding the issuance of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to illegal aliens. HSI and FMCSA, along with state and local partners, will focus on preserving the integrity of the CDL system, including maintaining high standards in CDL training and preventing fraud, in order to ensure that only qualified individuals operate commercial vehicles.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy added this to Melugin’s post on X:

FRAUDSTERS CAN RUN, BUT THEY CAN’T DRIVE

If you cheat the system by giving illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses: WE WILL FIND YOU, AND YOU WILL PAY A HEAVY PRICE

Our @DHSgov partnership is a massive force multiplier as we shut down these corrupt operations. President… https://t.co/8ELnT7Yh7X

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) July 16, 2026

FRAUDSTERS CAN RUN, BUT THEY CAN’T DRIVE

If you cheat the system by giving illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses: WE WILL FIND YOU, AND YOU WILL PAY A HEAVY PRICE

Our @DHSgov partnership is a massive force multiplier as we shut down these corrupt operations. President Trump is using every lever to clean up our roads and keep Americans safe

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin also responded:

Too many American lives have been lost in completely avoidable accidents because illegal aliens have been granted commercial driver’s licenses to drive trucks and 18-wheelers on America’s roadways. @DHSgov law enforcement is partnering with the @USDOT to eliminate CDL fraud,… https://t.co/oaT4ovzidJ

— Secretary Markwayne Mullin (@SecMullinDHS) July 16, 2026

Too many American lives have been lost in completely avoidable accidents because illegal aliens have been granted commercial driver’s licenses to drive trucks and 18-wheelers on America’s roadways.

@DHSgov law enforcement is partnering with the @USDOT to eliminate CDL fraud, strengthen the integrity of the CDL system, and investigate commercial driver’s license schools throughout the country.

ADVERTISEMENT

This is a whole of government approach to keep America’s roads safe.

To give you some additional context, under the Biden administration, there were at least 100,000 illegal aliens employed as truck drivers in the United States.

Since President Trump took over, tens of thousands of CDLs issued to illegal immigrants have been revoked, so far.

Grok provided some statistics:

There is no exact official count of undocumented (“illegal alien”) truck drivers in the US.

Simple Estimates

Total truck drivers in the US: About 3 to 3.5 million.

Undocumented truck drivers: Rough industry estimates put it at around 100,000 (this is not precise due to limited tracking).

Many are foreign-born (legal and illegal combined make up roughly 18-20% of drivers).

Under Trump’s Second Term (2025-2026)

The administration cracked down on commercial licenses (CDLs) for those without proper legal status, English proficiency issues, and certain non-citizen licenses.

About 28,000 licenses have been revoked or suspended so far.

Officials expect this could eventually affect up to ~194,000 non-citizen drivers through new rules and enforcement.

This includes targeted operations that pulled hundreds of unqualified drivers off the roads in various states. The focus has been on safety after several high-profile crashes.

By going after suspicious truck driver schools, the Trump administration is rooting out how these illegal immigrants have been able to obtain licenses to drive trucks on American roadways, in the first place.

This most recent initiative to make roads safer for U.S. citizens comes just one day after President Trump announced plans to hire more veterans to replace the thousands of illegal immigrants who work as truck drivers.

Related story here: