New York state will lose more than $73.5 million in federal funds after the Transportation Department said Thursday it has refused to revoke nearly 33,000 problematic immigrant commercial driver’s licenses since an audit last year uncovered the problems.
The department said more than half of the 200 licenses reviewed during the audit had significant problems, such as remaining valid long after immigrants were allowed to enter the country. As a result, the state was ordered to review all such licenses and revoke illegal licenses.
The federal government has reviewed state records related to these non-local CDLs since Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy focused on the issue following an August crash in Florida that killed three people. Most states have either complied or are negotiating with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, but California lost $200 million. Several other states — including Pennsylvania, Minnesota and North Carolina — were also warned that they were at risk of losing some funding.
“I made a promise to the American people that if any nation’s leaders failed to protect them from unvetted, unqualified foreign drivers, I would hold them accountable. And I made good on that promise today,” Duffy said.
Duffy said immigrants account for about 20% of the country’s truck drivers, but the non-domiciled driver’s licenses they can obtain only account for about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses, or about 200,000 drivers. New York issued 32,606 copies. The new rules announced by the Department of Transportation will prevent 97% of foreign drivers from obtaining commercial licenses again.
New York officials have defended their permitting practices and say they comply with federal law, a point supported by audits during Trump’s first administration.
This is not the first time the Transportation Department has withheld or threatened to withhold funding from New York since Trump returned to office.
Duffy has put on hold $18 billion in funding for a Manhattan subway expansion and a tunnel for Amtrak and commuter rail trains under the Hudson River. The Trump administration agreed Thursday to restore funding for the subway project. In February, a judge ordered that funding for the tunnel project continue. Duffy also threatened to withdraw federal funding from New York if the city doesn’t abandon its congestion charge for driving into large swaths of Manhattan and doesn’t address crime in the subway system. The state has also fought and won against these efforts in court.
Sean Butler, a spokesman for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said the actions related to commercial driver licenses appear to be part of a broader effort to attack blue states.
“Secretary Duffy’s threat to withhold funds to keep our roads, subways and other infrastructure safe for New Yorkers continues a year-long pattern. We will fight back and we will win again,” Butler said.
Trucking industry groups have praised the Department of Transportation’s efforts, including getting unqualified drivers off the road, cracking down on problematic trucking schools and going after trucking companies that violate regulations, then change their names and continue operating. Industry insiders say unqualified drivers – who shouldn’t have a driver’s license or don’t speak English – are often allowed to drive an 80,000-pound truck.
“These ‘enforcement’ actions will remove bad actors from the road and restore accountability to the system. Today’s action is an important step toward safer highways and a stronger, more professional trucking industry,” said Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association trade group.
But immigration groups say some drivers are now being unfairly targeted. The focus has been on Sikh truck drivers because the driver in the Florida crash and another fatal crash in California in October were both Sikhs.
