DOT Threatens to Withhold $73 Million from New York Over Illegally Issued Trucking Licenses

The U.S. Department of Transportation is threatening to pull $73 million in federal highway funding from New York after a federal audit revealed that more than half of the state’s commercial trucking licenses were issued to illegal immigrants.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued the warning Friday, citing a scathing audit from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) that found 53% of sampled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) in New York were unlawfully issued to foreign-born individuals in the country 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,” said Duffy. “Gov. Hochul must immediately revoke these illegally issued licenses. If they refuse to follow the law, we will withhold federal highway funding.”

According to the audit, FMCSA reviewed a sample of 200 non-domiciled CDLs issued by the New York Department of Motor Vehicles and found that 107 of them were invalid under federal law.

Among the most alarming findings: New York DMV reportedly issued 8-year licenses to foreign drivers even when their legal presence documents had expired. In some cases, the DMV relied on clearly expired lawful status documents to approve CDL applications, raising red flags about road safety and regulatory oversight.

Duffy has now given Governor Kathy Hochul 30 days to respond and is demanding the following immediate actions:

• Revoke all unlawfully issued CDLs

• Pause the issuance of new CDLs and learner’s permits to non-domiciled applicants

• Launch a full internal audit of the state’s CDL program

“This isn’t about politics. It’s about the safety of every family sharing the road with an 18-wheeler operated by someone who should never have been licensed to drive it in the first place,” Duffy said.

FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs echoed the concern, calling the findings “a grossly unacceptable deviation from federal regulations” that has “compromised the integrity of the state’s CDL program.”

Governor Hochul’s DMV, however, pushed back hard. NYS DMV spokesman Walter McClure accused the federal government of lying and politicizing the issue.

“Secretary Duffy is lying about New York State once again in a desperate attempt to distract from the failing, chaotic administration he represents,” McClure said. “Every CDL we issue is subject to verification of an applicant’s lawful status through federally-issued documents reviewed in accordance with federal regulations.”

Despite the DMV’s denials, the FMCSA audit places serious pressure on New York’s licensing system—and the Hochul administration now finds itself at the center of a growing transportation scandal with millions in federal funding on the line.