The Trump administration is threatening to withhold nearly $75 million in federal funding from Pennsylvania unless the state revokes what federal officials claim are illegally issued commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to immigrants.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy targeted Pennsylvania after a fatal crash involving an unauthorized immigrant truck driver in Florida brought renewed scrutiny to the licensing issue.
Zoom out: The administration has also taken similar action against California; both states have Democratic governors and are seen as future presidential contenders.
The big picture: According to a cited audit, two out of 150 licenses reviewed in Pennsylvania belonged to individuals whose licenses exceeded their lawful presence in the U.S.
- Federal authorities claim Pennsylvania did not always require noncitizens to provide legitimate proof of lawful presence when applying for a CDL.
- The administration wants Pennsylvania to stop issuing, renewing, or transferring CDLs to noncitizens, audit existing licenses, void noncompliant CDLs, and remove those drivers from the road.
- Approximately 12,400 noncitizen drivers currently hold an unexpired CDL or commercial learner’s permit issued by Pennsylvania.
Go deeper: Pennsylvania officials said they already stopped issuing non-domiciled CDLs after new federal regulations were published, and claim to follow federal rules by verifying all applicants’ legal status through the Department of Homeland Security’s database.
- Governor Josh Shapiro argued that issues with the federal DHS database, not state practices, contributed to any errors, emphasizing that states rely on this federal system to check eligibility.
