Our nation's highways may be a little safer this morning. We have all seen, all too often, the hazards that ensue when people who can neither read nor speak English are set loose on the nation's highways at the wheel of a multi-ton, 18-wheeled truck. We've heard too many stories of the sham driving schools that supposedly train these people to obtain their commercial driver's licenses (CDLs) and the Democrat-controlled states that issue them CDLs.
On Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced a major crackdown on those driving schools.
President Donald Trump's administration announced a "historic" crackdown on trucking fraud during a news conference in Detroit on Monday.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the move alongside Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, saying tens of thousands of illegal drivers' licenses were issued under former President Joe Biden's administration.
The number of driving schools involved is rather amazing, as is their utter lack of regard for the illegal status of their so-called students; not to mention their illiteracy in English, which makes one wonder how, in fact, these people were expected to receive the requisite training, much less pass the tests. But Democrat-controlled states have, remember, been very accommodating to truck drivers who can neither read nor speak English.
Duffy noted that millions of illegal immigrants were allowed into the country under the previous administration and many were granted commercial drivers' licenses, with many of them not even able to speak English.
The administration is shutting down 110 driving schools that were the "greatest offenders" in granting drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants, as well as 160 additional schools that Duffy says lacked proper space for driving tests or had unlicensed instructors.
This is, once again, what we call a "good start."
The real problem, though, lies in the states. At present, 19 states, plus the District of Columbia, will issue a CDL to an illegal alien. At least two states, California and Washington, are known to have issued CDLs to drivers who are not proficient in written or spoken English, and both of those states do or have offered the CDL written tests in languages other than English.
Federal regulations actually preclude this, in 49 CFR 391.11(b)(2):
(a) A person shall not drive a commercial motor vehicle unless he/she is qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle. Except as provided in § 391.63, a motor carrier shall not require or permit a person to drive a commercial motor vehicle unless that person is qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle.
(b) Except as provided in subpart G of this part, a person is qualified to drive a motor vehicle if he/she—
(1) Is at least 21 years old;
(2) Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records;
It is belaboring the obvious that any driver in any country should be able to read road signs, follow instructions, and converse with other drivers and passengers in the primary language of the country that they are operating in, and here, that's English. It is also belaboring the obvious to note that anyone entrusted with driving one of these big trucks should, at minimum, be in the country legally. According to Secretary Duffy, these 110 driving schools were catering to illegal immigrants, many not proficient in written or spoken English. That represents a clear and present danger to every other driver on the nation's highways.
Now they are being shut down. And, once again, yes, this is what we voted for.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned.