In 2024, Dalilah Coleman was critically injured when an 18-wheeler truck crashed on a California road that the government attributes to an undocumented immigrant driver. On August 31, 2026, in Detroit, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, joined by Dalilah and her father, announced a major interagency crackdown on the trucking industry, targeting fraud. This fraud specifically applies to commercial licenses and unlicensed, non-English-proficient drivers, as Mullin had warned that unqualified drivers who cannot “understand the rules of the road” are endangering Americans.

Motor-vehicle crashes cause about 24.5 percent of all traumatic brain injury hospitalizations. A loaded tractor-trailer presents more danger because it can outweigh a passenger car twentyfold. In 2024, crashes involving large trucks killed 5,340 people and injured an estimated 161,201. Data isolating brain injuries caused by unlicensed commercial drivers does not yet exist, but enforcement figures hint at the scale.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration also announced the emergency removal of certifications for 110 CDL schools, and the proposed removal of certifications of dozens of other training schools. Totaling over of 160 schools, and associated with more than 5,000 drivers, the FMCSA cites these school for certifying drivers who fail English language proficiency tests. Additionally, since 2025, the USDOT put more than 28,000 drivers “out of service” for English language proficiency violations, though this equals a temporary stop, not a license revocation. They also forced states to cancel over 30,000 improperly issued licenses.