The U.S. Department of Transportation is threatening to pull tens of millions of dollars in funding from New York — the latest state highlighted in the Trump administration’s scrutiny for granting commercial driver’s licenses to people in the country who lack legal status.
This follows other states like California, Pennsylvania and Minnesota that have been targeted for the same issue. All states are run by Democratic governors who have criticized President Donald Trump’s administration.
According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, an audit of states found New York to be the worst offender when it comes to issuing unlawful CDLs to immigrants. According to Duffy, 53% of non-domiciled CDLs in New York state were issued illegally.
“When more than half of the licenses reviewed were issued illegally, it isn’t just a mistake — it is a dereliction of duty by state leadership. Gov. [Kathy] Hochul must immediately revoke these illegally issued licenses,” Duffy said Friday.
Duffy also said the state couldn’t prove it had verified these drivers’ immigration status for the 32,000 active non-domiciled commercial licenses it has issued and that investigators found some examples of New York issuing licenses even when applicants’ work authorizations were already expired.
“Now what New York does is if an applicant comes in and they have a work authorization for 30 days, 60 days, one year, New York automatically issues them an eight-year commercial driver’s license. That’s contrary to the law,” Duffy said Friday.
Duffy says the state has 30 days to come into compliance with federal law and threatened to withhold $73 million in highway funds unless the system is fixed.
Last month, California said it would revoke 17,000 CDLs in response to the criticism.
Duffy’s efforts were launched after a truck driver who was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. But the rules on these licenses have been in place for years.
New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles responded, saying it will review the DOT’s letter and respond accordingly.
“Secretary Duffy is lying about New York State once again in a desperate attempt to distract from the failing, chaotic administration he represents. Here is the truth: Commercial Drivers Licenses are regulated by the Federal Government, and New York State DMV has, and will continue to, comply with federal rules,” DMV spokesperson Walter McClure said in the statement. “Every CDL we issue is subject to verification of an applicant’s lawful status through federally-issued documents reviewed in accordance with federal regulations. This is just another stunt from Secretary Duffy, and it does nothing to keep our roads safer. We will review USDOT’s letter and respond accordingly.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.