The U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the state of Illinois has 30 days to revoke licenses it alleges were issued illegally or risk millions in federal highway funding.
Duffy said that a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) review of the state’s non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) program found that nearly 20 percent of them were issued illegally. The state now has a month to come into compliance with new federal guidelines and to revoke the licenses in question or potentially lose $128 million in federal funding, Duffy said.
“I need our state partners to understand that they work for the American people, not illegal immigrants who broke the law illegally entering our country and continue to break it by operating massive big rigs without the proper qualifications,” Duffy said.
In a letter to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Illinois Director of Driver Services Kevin Duesterhaus, the FMCSA outlined the audit’s findings of illegally issues non-domiciled CDLs. FMCSA alleges the CDLs were issued to drivers whose licenses were valid after their lawful presence in the U.S. had expired and issued to drivers without first verifying their lawful presence in the U.S.
Duffy said his department is now demanding that the state immediately pause the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, identify all unexpired non-domiciled CDLs that fail to comply with FMCSA regulations, revoke and reissue all noncompliant non-domiciled CDLs if they comply with federal requirements, and conduct an internal audit to identify all procedural and programming errors that allowed the noncompliant non-domiciled CDLs to be issued, as well as address training and quality assurance problems, and insufficient policies and practices.
“Secretary Duffy and I will be relentless in our agenda to reinstate commonsense safety standards that protect our truckers and American families,” FMCSA Administrator Derek D. Barrs, said.