DETROIT — Framing the initiative as an effort to improve safety on American roads, President Trump’s administration launched a nationwide campaign last week targeting commercial truck driving schools to ensure compliance with federal standards, including requirements that drivers be able to speak and understand English.

At a news conference held Monday at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit, federal officials — including Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin — announced the campaign, which began with the emergency removal of more than 110 truck-driving schools from the federal Training Provider Registry.

Federal officials said the schools were associated with more than 5,000 drivers who failed English language proficiency tests. More than 160 additional schools received notices of proposed removal for serious violations, including employing unqualified instructors and failing to provide adequate space, vehicles or facilities for driver training.

The federal enforcement actions extended across numerous states, including Michigan. Homeland Security Investigations also launched a coordinated inspection operation targeting more than 200 truck driving schools and related businesses across 23 states.

The campaign, aimed at reducing traffic fatalities and serious injuries, includes the formation of an expanded task force comprising law enforcement and regulatory agencies. It will conduct a nationwide audit of third-party commercial driving examiners and examine how effectively states oversee them.

States that fail to maintain strict oversight could face serious penalties, including the withholding of up to 4 percent of their federal highway funding during the first year of noncompliance and up to 8 percent in subsequent years.

The announcement is part of a broader Trump administration effort to enforce English language requirements and prevent unqualified drivers from fraudulently obtaining commercial driver’s licenses.

“We are working to root out fraud and fraudsters and restore safety to our roads,” Duffy said during the news conference.

The campaign follows a series of fatal crashes involving commercial truck drivers whom officials said were improperly licensed or unqualified. Federal officials said drivers certified by the 160 schools facing proposed removal were linked to 239 commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities.

Officials also cited at least 17 crashes during the previous year involving allegedly unqualified foreign drivers that resulted in 30 deaths.

Several federal officials attended the news conference, including U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. of the Eastern District of Michigan and senior federal prosecutors from Midwestern states, including Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.

Detroit was selected as the location for announcing the enforcement campaign because of the region’s heavy commercial traffic and cross-border connections with Canada. The Detroit–Windsor corridor is one of the country’s busiest commercial border crossings, handling millions of trucks annually.

“Many of these trucks are driven by foreign nationals and illegal aliens who lack proper training,” Gorgon said.

Mullin said even one preventable death or permanent injury is unacceptable.

Over the past 18 months, federal transportation officials have placed more than 28,000 commercial drivers out of service for failing to meet English language proficiency requirements. States have also been required to cancel more than 30,000 commercial driver’s licenses that federal officials said were improperly issued to foreign drivers.

The English language requirement has been in place for decades but, according to administration officials, had not previously been strictly enforced.