WASHINGTON, DC — Federal and state authorities placed 766 commercial drivers and vehicles out of service during a three-day enforcement operation across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio, expanding a federal crackdown targeting unsafe trucking operations and foreign drivers who officials contend were not qualified to operate commercial vehicles.
The July 28-30 enforcement push was the second wave of Operation Highway Shield, a joint initiative involving the U.S. departments of Transportation and Homeland Security, state highway patrols, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations.
Authorities detained 51 immigrants who federal officials identified as being in the country illegally. The group included 21 drivers holding non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses issued by California and New York, according to preliminary results released by the agencies.
Inspectors also issued 36 violations to drivers who failed English-language proficiency requirements and recovered nearly $1 million in stolen cargo.
Authorities arrested 86 operators for conduct that the agencies described as dangerous, including cases involving road rage and domestic violence. The release did not provide a breakdown of the charges or specify how many of those arrests involved commercial-driving violations.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy framed the operation as part of the administration’s effort to remove unqualified drivers and combat fraud in commercial trucking.
“Our new partnership with DHS builds on President Trump’s progress to secure our roads, eliminate fraud, and restore the integrity of trucking in America,” Duffy stated.
The agencies did not provide information in the preliminary results establishing how many of the 766 out-of-service orders involved drivers, vehicles or both, nor did they provide the specific safety violations responsible for most of those orders.
Operation Highway Shield began with an enforcement campaign in Florida in March. Authorities conducted more than 3,300 inspections during that effort and placed 176 drivers out of service, including 54 for language deficiencies.
The first operation also resulted in 35 arrests on criminal-related charges and 42 people being taken into federal immigration custody, according to the agencies.
The latest campaign comes as the Transportation Department increases scrutiny of commercial-driver licensing and training. FMCSA and Homeland Security Investigations last month began a joint operation targeting what the agencies describe as fraudulent and illegal practices involving commercial driver’s license schools.
The Transportation Department also issued a rule in February intended to restrict unqualified foreign drivers from obtaining commercial licenses for trucks and buses.
FMCSA conducted a separate enforcement campaign, Operation SafeDRIVE, that month. The agency reported that the effort resulted in nearly 2,000 drivers and vehicles being removed from service and 56 arrests.
The administration has also increased enforcement of English-language proficiency requirements for commercial drivers. Since an April 2025 executive order addressing the trucking industry, federal officials report placing 26,000 drivers out of service for failing to meet English-language requirements.
The Transportation Department also reports shutting down 8,000 driving schools and revoking more than 30,000 licenses that the administration contends were improperly issued to foreign drivers.
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