Federal authorities report that a three-day commercial vehicle enforcement operation across four Midwestern states produced approximately 766 out-of-service orders and led to the arrest of 86 truck drivers.

The operation, conducted July 28–30, represented the second wave of Operation Highway Shield, a joint initiative carried out by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Inspectors focused on identifying unqualified commercial drivers, unsafe vehicles, and fraudulent commercial driver's licensing practices during roadside inspections along major freight corridors.

The joint mission specifically targeted unqualified foreign drivers operating tractor-trailers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio — states bisected by some of the country's busiest interstate freight routes, including I-80, I-70, and I-74, which connect Midwest manufacturing centers to East Coast and Gulf Coast distribution hubs.

Second Major Highway Shield Operation

Federal officials described the July operation as the second phase of Operation Highway Shield. The first wave, conducted in Florida in March, involved more than 3,300 commercial vehicle inspections. That earlier operation resulted in 176 out-of-service orders, including 54 related to English-language deficiencies, 35 criminal arrests, and 42 individuals taken into custody for federal immigration violations.

English-language proficiency has long been a federal requirement for commercial drivers under FMCSA regulations, which mandate that operators can read and speak English sufficiently to converse with the public, understand traffic signs and signals, respond to official inquiries, and maintain records. The recent enforcement surge reflects heightened focus on this existing standard rather than a new mandate.

The latest enforcement effort builds on a July announcement expanding cooperation between the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and Homeland Security Investigations to investigate alleged fraud involving commercial driver training schools and licensing programs.

DOT also highlighted several broader enforcement initiatives undertaken since 2025:

• More than 26,000 drivers placed out of service for failing English-language requirements.
• Approximately 8,000 allegedly fraudulent CDL schools shut down.
• More than 30,000 improperly issued commercial driver's licenses revoked.

The scale of those figures underscores the breadth of alleged licensing fraud across the commercial trucking sector, an industry that moves roughly 72 percent of domestic freight tonnage in the United States according to ATA estimates.

The operation comes as federal agencies continue to increase scrutiny of commercial driver qualifications, English-language proficiency, non-domiciled CDLs, and alleged licensing fraud throughout the trucking industry. Operation Highway Shield signals that coordinated federal-state trucking enforcement has become a sustained strategy, with regulators increasingly combining safety, immigration, licensing, and cargo theft investigations during roadside operations.