Duffy withholds federal funding from New York over a dispute over immigrant truck drivers’ licenses

New York will lose more than $73.5 million in federal money because the Department of Transportation said Thursday that the state has refused to revoke nearly 33,000 questionable commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants since an audit uncovered problems last year.

The ministry said that more than half of the 200 licenses reviewed during the review had major problems such as remaining valid long after the immigrant was allowed to be in the country. Therefore, the state ordered a review of all this type of licenses and the cancellation of illegal licenses.

He watches: Duffy threatens to withhold millions in highway funds from New York over flaws in its commercial driver’s license system for immigrants

The federal government has reviewed records related to nonresident CDLs in every state since Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy highlighted the issue after a plane crash in Florida in August 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 — have been warned that they are at risk of losing some funding.

“I promised the American people that I would hold any nation’s leader accountable for failing to keep unqualified foreign drivers safe. And I’m keeping that promise today,” Duffy said.

Immigrants represent about 20% of all truck drivers nationwide, but those non-local licenses that immigrants can obtain represent only about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses, or about 200,000 drivers, Duffy said. New York issued 32,606 of them. The new rules announced by the Ministry of Transport will prevent 97% of these foreign drivers from obtaining a commercial license again.

Officials in New York have defended their licensing practices and said they comply with federal law and that audits during the first Trump administration back up that.

This is not the first time the Department of Transportation has withheld or threatened to withhold funding from New York since Trump returned to office.

Duffy halted $18 billion in funding for the Manhattan subway extension and tunnels under the Hudson River for Amtrak and railcars. The Trump administration agreed Thursday to restore funding for the subway project. In February, a judge ordered continued funding for the tunnel project. Duffy also threatened to withdraw federal funding from New York if it did not abandon congestion pricing fees for driving in a large area of ​​Manhattan and if crime in the subway system was not addressed. The state also fought those efforts in court and won.

Sean Butler, a spokesman for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said the measure on commercial driver’s licenses appears to be part of a broad effort to attack blue states.

“This continues a year-long pattern of Secretary Duffy threatening to withhold funds that keep our roads, subways, and other infrastructure safe for New Yorkers. We will fight back, and we will prevail again,” Butler said.

Trucking industry groups have applauded the Department of Transportation’s efforts to keep unqualified drivers off the road, crack down on questionable trucking schools and go after trucking companies that flout the rules and then change their names and continue operating. Too often, unqualified drivers who shouldn’t have licenses or can’t speak English are allowed to get behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound (about 39,916 kilogram) truck, the industry said.

“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 migrant groups say some drivers are now being unfairly targeted. Sikh truck drivers have been in the spotlight because the driver in the Florida accident and the driver in another fatal crash in California in October were both Sikhs.