We have been keeping an eye out for issues related to Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) and the illegal aliens who own them.
Earlier this year, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had just ordered more than 550 commercial driving schools to close after discovering numerous violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)’s safety standards.
Prior to that move, Duffy threatened to withdraw $73 million from New York after an investigation found that 53% of those with commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) were issued illegally.
Well, it looks like New York has officially entered the FO phase of the FAFO cycle.
New York will lose more than $73.5 million in federal money because the Transportation Department said Thursday that state has refused to revoke nearly 33,000 questionable commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants since an audit uncovered problems last year.The department said that more than half of the 200 licenses reviewed during the audit had significant problems such as remaining valid long after an immigrant was authorized to be in the country. So the state was ordered to review all of this type of licenses and revoke illegal ones.
The agency gave New York four whole months to comply with the standards. Furthermore, the Transportation Secretary indicates that the state’s ability to actually issue CDLs is now jeopardized.
And so usually we give states 30 days to come into compliance. We gave New York four months to say, “Hey, what we want you to do is just go back and audit all these licenses that you’ve given, and if you’ve given them contrary to the rules, we’ll revoke that license.”And in essence, New York said, “Go pound sand, DOT.”And so this is the first step. We’re gonna pull $73 million. There’s more money that we can pull as we get to be out months, but in the very end, if New York doesn’t comply, we can pull their ability to issue commercial driver licenses.It is not a New York issue. As you know, commercial drivers don’t stay in New York. They drive across the country. So you have a state with good rules, say Oklahoma. These drivers from New York drive trucks through Oklahoma and every other state. And so they endanger the families that are going to church like on a Sunday morning like today, or they go into Walmart shopping.
Over 30,000 CDLs to nondomiciled drivers have been issued by New York.
Duffy has said that immigrants account for about 20% of all truck drivers nationwide, but these non-domiciled licenses immigrants can receive only represent about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses or about 200,000 drivers. New York issued 32,606 of them. New rules the Transportation Department has announced will prevent 97% of those foreign drivers from getting a commercial license again.New York officials have defended their licensing practices and said they are complying with federal law and that audits during the first Trump administration supported that.
It must be noted that New York isn’t the only state facing CDL issues, which can lead to potentially deadly incidents involving drivers unqualified to handle big rigs on our roads.
Federal regulators have stepped up enforcement of trucker licensing rules after a surge of deadly crashes involving non-domiciled drivers last summer. In 2025, at least 30 people died in 17 crashes caused by non-domiciled drivers, according to the DOT.Regulators added that at least 30 states have issued commercial driver’s licenses to drivers deemed ineligible.
It’s a refreshing change to see a Secretary of Transportation focused on the core mission: protecting the safety of all Americans on our roadways, rather than indulging political preferences or selective enforcement.
Duffy’s willingness to enforce standards, hold states accountable, and prioritize competence over ideology signals a long-overdue return to seriousness in a role where lives quite literally hang in the balance.
Duffy will be remembered for his cool competence, which is a stark contrast to the Biden administration’s pick for this position.
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