Padlock on the Gate: DOT Shuts 110 CDL Schools on the Spot, Puts 160 More on Notice, and Sends Federal Agents to 200 Schools in 23 States

The crackdown on CDL fraud just moved upstream. For a year the pressure fell on drivers — roadside English checks, out-of-service orders, license downgrades. On Monday, August 31, in Detroit, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs aimed it at the people who trained and tested those drivers. Three federal departments, one press conference, and a set of numbers that got scrambled within hours. Sorting them out matters, because they describe very different things.

110 gone today, 160 on notice — not the same list

The hard action is the emergency removal of more than 110 entry-level driver training providers from FMCSA's Training Provider Registry. Those schools certified drivers who were later cited for English-language proficiency violations — about 5,000 violations traced back to them. Removal from the registry means their certificates no longer count toward a CDL, and DOT says the providers must cease operations immediately. "What we are announcing is an emergency executive shutdown of 110 driving schools," Duffy said. "These are driving schools that account for 5,000 of the violations for English proficiency."

The second number is softer. In July, FMCSA sent 175 investigators into 40 states to run close to 400 on-site investigations of training providers. They found classrooms that did not exist, instructors without licenses, missing records and lots too small to practice a backing maneuver. The result is more than 160 notices of proposed removal — the paperwork step that precedes removal, with a chance to respond. Those schools are not closed yet.

The three schools they chose to name

Barrs walked through three examples at the podium. Platinum Plus Truck Driving School in California certified 36 drivers who were subsequently cited for English-proficiency violations; one of them, he said, was involved in a fatal crash in Oklahoma. ASC Technical Institute in Texas certified 58 such drivers, and one later ran a stop sign and killed a man in Texas. Angel's Transportation in New Jersey trained students in a parking lot too small to perform the required maneuvers — that one appears to sit in the proposed-removal group rather than the emergency list. None of the three was described as facing criminal charges; these are registry actions.

Ten testers, two thousand licenses

The part of the announcement most likely to change how CDLs are issued is not about schools at all. Federal officials identified 10 third-party skills testers in a single state who together issued more than 2,000 CDLs to drivers who later could not meet the English requirement. "We have 10 skill testers who have given over 2,000 driver's licenses to people who can't speak English," Duffy said. "This is the simplest of tests." FMCSA is now launching a nationwide audit of third-party skills testers and of how each state supervises them. The state was not named.

The scale of the problem DOT is pointing to: since roadside English-proficiency enforcement resumed in June 2025, more than 28,000 commercial drivers have been placed out of service for it. Over the same year and a half, DOT says states have been made to revoke more than 30,000 licenses it considers improperly issued, and more than 8,000 training providers have come off the registry for failing FMCSA standards. Monday's 110 sit on top of that total.

Then the badges showed up

What makes this round different is who else is in the room. Homeland Security Investigations says it has logged more than 1,000 leads on CDL-related businesses and had already issued more than 80 notices of inspection before Monday. On the day of the announcement HSI ran a synchronized sweep of more than 200 driving schools across 23 states, looking at CDL fraud, identity-document fraud, unauthorized employment, shell companies and money laundering. The Justice Department, for its part, created the Joint Task Force Crossroads of America — all nine U.S. Attorney's offices in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, working with FMCSA, FBI, DEA, HSI, ICE and ATF along the Midwest freight corridors.

“ Many of them don't speak English or understand the rules of the road, and yet they're driving among us, endangering our loved ones. Our partnership with the Department of Transportation will help root out CDL fraud. ”

The framing from DHS is immigration first; the framing from DOT is safety and fraud. Both departments are pointing at the same schools and testers, which is why a training-registry action now comes with federal agents and grand juries attached.

The drivers' association wants it written into law

OOIDA, which usually greets federal enforcement drives with caution, backed this one without hedging. "Nobody cares more about highway safety than professional truck drivers," President Todd Spencer said, commending Duffy and Barrs for "concrete actions to crack down on fraudulent training operations." His ask is that Congress make it permanent by passing Dalilah's Law — named for Dalilah Coleman, injured in a 2024 California crash involving a tractor-trailer. The bill would require CDL knowledge and skills tests to be administered only in English and cleared the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee 35-26 on March 18. It has not had a floor vote.