Sean Duffy says nearly 300 truck driving schools have been shut down nationwide

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the emergency shutdown of 270 driving schools, saying the schools were operating fraudulently and not ensuring its trainees were proficient at speaking and reading English.

“These are driving schools that account for 5,000 of the violations for English proficiency," Duffy told reporters on Monday. "You have to speak English to operate a commercial vehicle. I didn't create that rule -- President Trump didn't create that rule. That rue has been in place for decades. We have schools that know the rule and still pass people through their school who can't speak the language."

In one state, more than 2,000 licenses were given to drivers who can't speak English, Duffy said the Transportation Department found. Tens of thousands of illegal driver's licenses were issued during President Joe Biden's lone term in office, Duffy added.

Duffy went on to say another 160 driving schools that he said have falsely certified that they are equipped to properly train commercial truck drivers have also been shut down as of Monday. The transportation secretary said some of the so-called schools don't have classrooms or even the space to allow trainees to get behind the wheel of a big rig and practice maneuvering the vehicles. Others, he said, have unlicensed instructors. 

"One school that we're shutting down was so flippant," Duffy said, "their classroom, they told us, was a school bus that was in the backyard." Duffy said the problem extends to the testing phase as well, and that many state-certified testers haven't been adequately testing some of the drivers who ended up getting licensed. 

The issue drew the attention of the Trump administration as part of its wider crackdown on immigration and several high-profile and deadly crashes that occurred with a driver who was issued a license despite not being able to speak English behind the wheel of the truck. Watch a highlight of Duffy's announcement below.