Trump admin trucking crackdown lands 51 immigration detentions, 36 English language proficiency violations

The Department of Transportation (DOT) began the crackdown, Operation Highway Shield, in Florida earlier this year. The DOT has since expanded the effort to multiple states in the Midwest, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio, Fox News has learned.

"I try to concentrate on the [signs] they have to read," Master Trooper Craig Lents said at the time. "If you are going down the road at 70 miles per hour, and you see that sign, you only see it for a split second."

In another encounter caught on video, a trooper asked a trucker what a road sign meant.

The trucker replied, "No."

The trooper then asked what drivers should do if they saw the sign, to which the trucker replied, "No," again.

"It's been the law for a long period of time," said Derek Barrs, Federal Motor Carrier Safety administrator. "It's a safety issue. … If there was a crash or something like that, I would want to make sure that driver would know how to respond - slow down for upcoming traffic or a crash that has happened up ahead."

Authorities explained that being unable to speak or read English is dangerous because truckers are driving by important road signs at high speeds while carrying hundreds of tons.