Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has put New York on notice, threatening to withhold $73 million in highway funds after a federal audit revealed serious problems with the state’s issuance of commercial driver’s licenses to non-citizens.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration examined 200 non-domiciled CDLs issued by the New York DMV and found 107 were unlawfully granted. New York currently has about 32,000 such licenses in use nationwide.
Duffy said, “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.”
He added, “But we also found that New York many times won’t even verify whether they have a work authorization, they have a visa, or they’re in the country legally.”
New York is now the eighth state flagged in ongoing audits for issuing CDLs that remain valid long after a driver’s legal status expires—or in some cases, without proper status checks at all.
Similar problems led California to revoke over 21,000 licenses earlier this year, while Pennsylvania faces penalties over 12,400 non-citizen holdings. Texas audits showed nearly half of reviewed licenses were flawed.
These audits gained urgency after several fatal crashes involving foreign drivers with questionable licenses, including incidents in Florida and California that claimed multiple lives.
Duffy gave New York 30 days to conduct a full audit, halt improper issuances, and revoke non-compliant licenses. Failure to comply risks not only the funding cut but potential decertification of the state’s entire CDL program.
The New York DMV insists it follows federal rules, verifying status through required documents. Yet federal investigators found systemic errors, including reliance on expired authorizations and automatic long-term expirations that ignore temporary legal presence.
With immigrants making up a significant portion of the trucking workforce, the focus remains on ensuring only qualified, lawfully present drivers operate heavy rigs on American roads. The administration has already pulled thousands of drivers nationwide for failing English proficiency checks, part of broader efforts to restore safety standards.
