Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of Illinois-based JKC Trucking, is calling for increased investigations into what he describes as unqualified commercial truck drivers operating on U.S. highways. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Kucharski said the issue involves drivers who cannot read basic road signage or communicate clearly in English.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced this week that his office has launched an investigation into several commercial driving schools in Texas for allegedly providing inadequate training to non-English speakers, which he says violates federal law requiring basic English comprehension. Separately, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Department of Transportation had issued more than 550 notices of removal, or decertifications, to CDL training schools found in violation of federal safety standards.
What the Left Is Saying
Immigrant rights advocates and progressive policy groups have argued that focusing on driver immigration status distracts from underlying issues with trucking industry training standards. They note that legal immigrants make up a significant portion of the commercial trucking workforce and contribute to critical supply chain operations. Some labor advocates contend that industry-wide wage suppression and poor working conditions are more pressing concerns than driver qualifications, arguing that these factors affect all truckers regardless of immigration status. Groups such as the American Immigration Law Foundation have previously argued for creating pathways for legal immigrant workers in industries facing labor shortages rather than increased enforcement.
Kucharski pushed back on framing this primarily as an economic issue separate from safety. "You wouldn't put someone in a cockpit of a Boeing 737 flying from New York to California if they weren't properly trained or couldn't communicate clearly or speak English," he said. "The same standard should apply to our highways." He argued that unqualified drivers create risk for all motorists, pointing to documented accidents. "When unqualified drivers slip through the cracks, that creates risk for our motoring public, and you can see that there's accidents all the time," Kucharski continued.
What the Right Is Saying
Conservative officials and industry groups have emphasized both the safety risks and economic competition posed by improperly credentialed commercial drivers. Senator John Cornyn of Texas has previously supported legislation aimed at strengthening CDL certification requirements, arguing that federal standards must be enforced uniformly across states.
Kucharski said he believes state-level action is necessary because current systems allow exploitation through non-domiciled licenses issued by certain states. "If you have these drivers coming in that are non-domiciled, they have no family here, they have no home, they live in their truck," he said. "They're saying, 'OK, look, all the market's doing for $2,000, we'll do it for $1,700.' So, it's putting small trucking businesses out of business every day." He argued that Paxton and Duffy are correct to pursue enforcement actions against schools certifying unqualified drivers.
What the Numbers Show
The Department of Transportation reported issuing more than 550 notices of removal to CDL training schools across the country for violations of federal safety standards. In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton's office announced an investigation into multiple commercial driving schools for allegedly providing inadequate training in violation of state and federal law.
In Ohio, officials revealed that Modou Ngom, a semi-truck driver charged in a crash that killed a family of three, had fraudulently obtained an Ohio driver's license, commercial driver's license, and later U.S. citizenship under an alternate identity. In Indiana, ICE arrested Bekzhan Beishekeev, who was issued a CDL by Pennsylvania and allegedly caused a head-on collision on February 3 that killed four people. In Oregon, authorities arrested Rajinder Kumar, accused of causing a crash that killed a newlywed couple when his semi-truck jackknifed and blocked traffic.
The Bottom Line
The intersection of CDL school fraud, immigration enforcement, and road safety has drawn attention from both state attorneys general and federal transportation officials. The DOT's decertification efforts represent an attempt to address training school abuses, while Texas authorities are pursuing separate legal action under state law.
Industry observers say the issue affects both public safety and economic competition within the trucking sector. Kucharski argued that without continued enforcement against fraudulent CDL issuance, accidents and business closures will continue. "This has to stop because the longer this continues, there's going to be more accidents, more people that are going to perish," he said.
What happens next: Paxton's investigation could result in legal action against Texas driving schools, while federal officials have signaled continued enforcement against sham CDL training facilities. Congressional attention to trucking industry standards remains a possibility as both safety and immigration policy debates continue.