Truck Safety & Regulation

The U.S. Department of Transportation says a three‑day national enforcement push in mid‑January, Operation SafeDRIVE, led to more than 8,200 inspections on major trucking corridors in 26 states and Washington, D.C., with 704 commercial drivers ordered off the road and 1,231 vehicles placed out of service. FMCSA officials told Fox News Digital that roughly 500 of those sidelined drivers were cited for violating the federal English‑proficiency requirement for commercial license holders, and 56 people were arrested, including several for DUI/DWI and being in the U.S. illegally. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs framed the crackdown as a 'whole‑of‑government' bid to remove unqualified or impaired drivers amid mounting concern over serious crashes involving non‑citizen truckers, including a recent fatal wreck in Indiana caused by Kyrgyz driver Bekzhan Beishekeev. The article also highlights other recent cases where state weigh‑station checks uncovered foreign drivers allegedly in the country unlawfully or with irregular CDL documentation, which DHS has used to attack sanctuary‑style licensing policies while Democratic officials blame federal data systems. The operation underscores how truck‑safety enforcement is being tightly coupled to Trump‑era interior immigration priorities, even as critics on social media question whether English‑rule sweeps are being selectively enforced to make a broader political point.