RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Two downstate federal prosecutors’ offices joined the U.S. Justice Department Monday in announcing a crackdown on trucking schools that the Trump administration claims has helped immigrants without documentation obtain commercial driver’s licenses.
Federal authorities shut down 110 CDL schools nationwide associated with more than 5,000 drivers “who failed English language proficiency tests,” according to the DOJ.
Another 160 schools were closed after inspections found inadequate facilities and some unlicensed instructors.
It wasn’t clear how many were based in Illinois. But the offices of two U.S. Attorneys from Illinois — Steven Weinhoeft of the Southern District and Greg Gilmore of the Central District — were named to a sprawling task force charged with auditing additional schools.
The federal government sets CDL testing standards while states issue licenses. A spokesman for Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said their office follows national regulations and didn’t have any comment on the new initiative.
A spokesperson for Gov. JB Pritzker, a vocal Trump critic, said the administration was "choosing to attack truckers for how they look or speak."
"The Trump Administration is using veiled excuses to invalidate hundreds of training schools that doesn’t make our roads safer — they’re only attacking our critical trucker workforce and supply chains as our nation faces national truck driver shortages," according to Pritzker's office.
CDL holders and applicants are required to “show proof of legal presence and domicile” under federal law.
In Illinois, tests are administered only in English, a provision spurred almost three decades ago following a license-for-bribes scandal that contributed to the downfall of the late, federally convicted ex-Illinois Gov. George Ryan.
The federal task force comes on the heels of an effort by the Trump administration to gain access to databases with the sensitive information on thousands of CDL holders nationwide, a measure that Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has sued to block along with the top legal officers from 20 other states.
The administration has threatened to cut more than $10 million in federal funding to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators for not handing over the last five years of data from the Commercial Driver’s License Information System. The database was created in the late 1980s to help states determine driver eligibility for CDLs across state lines.
Raoul and other attorneys general claim the Trump administration is violating both state and federal law by creating its own version of the database without guardrails for the handling of sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers.
The lawsuits claim the administration “has no legitimate need to take over this database of state records, and it failed to consult the states before making this drastic change.”
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