The Transportation Department will immediately tighten up the requirements for non-citizens to get commercial drivers licenses after three fatal crashes this year that officials say were caused by immigrant truck drivers who never should have received licenses.
The nationwide audit of these licenses began after a fatal U-turn crash in Florida that killed two people caused by a truck driver who officials said was in the country illegally. But Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said fatal crashes caused by truck drivers who shouldn’t have had licenses were also found in Texas and Alabama earlier this year.
Duffy also threatened to revoke $160 million in federal funding for California because investigators found that one in four of the 145 commercial drivers licenses for non-citizens issued since June that they reviewed should have never been issued under the current rules. That state has 30 days to audit its program and come up with a plan to comply or it will lose funding.
Duffy said the current rules aren’t strict enough and a number of states aren’t following them. The audit found licenses that were issued improperly in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington.
“We have a government system designed to keep American families on the road safe. But that system has been compromised,” Duffy said.
Previously, Duffy threatened to pull some federal funding from California, Washington and New Mexico for failing to enforce English proficiency requirements for truckers that went into effect this summer. The Transportation Department is still reviewing the responses from those states.
All states must pause issuing commer