New York loses nearly $74 million for not revoking 33,000 illegal licenses for immigrant truckers
New York stands to lose more than $73.5 million in federal money after the Department of Transportation announced Thursday that the state refused to cancel nearly 33,000 loans. questionable commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants since problems were revealed during an inspection last year.
The ministry said more than half of the 200 licenses examined during the audit faced significant problems, such as remaining valid long after an immigrant was allowed to be in the country. The state was then ordered to review all such licenses and cancel the illegal ones.
federal government reviewed the records Non-resident CDLs have been in every state since Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy brought attention to this issue. An accident in Florida in August killed three people. Most states have either complied with or are in talks with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, but California lost 200 million dollars. Some other states – included PennsylvaniaMinnesota and North Carolina – they were warned that they risk losing part of the funds.
“I promised the American people that I would hold any state leader accountable for failing to protect them from unregulated, unqualified foreign drivers. Today, I am fulfilling that promise,” Duffy said.
Duffy said immigrants make up about 20% of all truck drivers nationwide, but these non-residential licenses that immigrants can obtain represent only 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses, or about 200,000 drivers. New York has issued 32,606 of them. The new rules announced by the Ministry of Transport will prevent 97% of foreign drivers from obtaining a commercial driver’s license again.
New York officials defended their licensing practices and said they followed federal law, as audits conducted during the first Trump administration backed up.
This isn’t the first time the Department of Transportation has cut or threatened to cut funding from New York since Trump returned to office.
duffy keep waiting $18 billion in funding for a subway expansion in Manhattan and tunnels for Amtrak and commuter rail trains under the Hudson River. The Trump administration reached an agreement Thursday to restore funding for the subway project. In February, a judge ruled that funding for the tunnel project would continue. Duffy also threatened to withdraw federal funds from New York if it did not abandon this agreement. congestion pricing fee To drive across a wide area of Manhattan and if crime in the subway system not addressed. The state also challenged these efforts in court and won.
Sean Butler, a spokesman for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said the action on commercial driver’s licenses appears to be part of a broader effort to attack blue states.
“This continues a year-long pattern in which Secretary Duffy has threatened to withhold money to keep our roads, subways, and other infrastructure safe for New Yorkers. We will fight back and win once again,” Butler said.
Trucking industry groups praised the Department of Transportation’s efforts to keep unqualified drivers off the road and crack down on drivers. questionable trucking schools and go after it truck companies who violated the rules and then changed their name and continued working. The industry frequently employs unqualified drivers who should not have a driver’s license or I don’t speak English They were allowed behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound (about 39,916 kilograms) truck.
“These” enforcement actions will remove bad actors from the roads 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 trade group Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.
However, immigrant groups say some drivers are no longer was unfairly targeted. In the accident in Florida, attention was on the Sikh truckers because the driver’s attention was on the Sikh truckers. another fatal accident In California in October, both are Sikhs.
