DOT Urges Minnesota to Revoke Illegal Driver’s Licenses or Risk $30.4 Million in Funds

The Department of Transportation (DOT) warned on Dec. 1 that Minnesota must revoke commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) that were illegally issued to noncitizens or risk losing $30.4 million in federal highway funding.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the move was necessary after a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration review found that one-third of the state’s non-domiciled CDLs had been issued illegally.

According to the DOT, its audit found that Minnesota issued non-domiciled CDLs to drivers whose legal status in the United States had already expired, to drivers barred from obtaining those licenses, and without providing evidence that it verified the drivers’ lawful presence in the country.

“Minnesota failed to follow the law and illegally doled out trucking licenses to unsafe, unqualified noncitizens—endangering American families on the road,” Duffy said in the statement. “That abuse stops now under the Trump administration. The department will withhold funding if Minnesota continues this reckless behavior that puts non-citizens gaming the system ahead of the safety of Americans.”

The DOT sent a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, urging the state to come into compliance within 30 days and revoke the illegal licenses. It also required the state to pause the issuance of CDLs to noncitizens.

A spokesperson for Walz said in a statement to news outlets that the letter was being reviewed.

“We take safety on our roads seriously and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety has already worked to ensure we are in compliance with federal law,” the spokesperson said.

This followed an emergency action by the DOT in September that drastically restricted CDL issuance to noncitizens after a fatal crash in Florida on Aug. 12 involving a semi-truck driver who illegally entered the United States in 2018 through the southern border. The driver had obtained his CDL in California, officials said.

The federal government has already withheld more than $40 million in funding from California after an investigation found that the state had not met federal English-language proficiency standards for truck drivers.

Last month, California revoked about 17,000 licenses that were illegally issued to noncitizens after the DOT threatened to withhold another $160 million in funding from the state, according to the department.

Duffy said that California could lose its ability to issue CDLs and also risk losing more funding if it failed to comply with federal safety rules.

On Nov. 20, the department said its audit found that Pennsylvania had violated federal safety regulations by issuing CDLs to foreigners without first verifying their legal status. It urged the state to revoke those illegal licenses and warned that failure to come into compliance would result in a loss of $75 million in federal funding.

Reuters contributed to this report.