Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Friday that New York could lose $73 million in federal highway funds after a damning audit found more than half of the state’s immigrant commercial driver’s licenses were issued illegally. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasted New York’s leadership, warning Governor Kathy Hochul to revoke the licenses or lose $73 million in highway funding.
Federal investigators found that New York’s DMV systems defaulted to issuing eight‑year CDLs even when immigration documents expired in months, creating what Duffy called a “dereliction of duty” that endangered families on America’s highways. “When more than half of the licenses reviewed were issued illegally, it isn’t just a mistake — it is a dereliction of duty by state leadership,” Duffy said during a briefing at the Department of Transportation on Friday.
Secretary Duffy’s briefing followed a fatal bus crash in Tennessee, where a Chinese national with a New York-issued non-domiciled CDL allegedly killed another truck driver while watching a video on his cell phone, Breitbart Texas reported. ICE officials have yet to disclose any information about the immigration status of the Chinese man, identified as Huang Yisong, age 54.
“A Chinese national driving a motorcoach slammed into a vehicle in Tennessee, killing an individual and causing a major traffic jam this week,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote in a post on social media. “And to make matters worse, this driver had a non-domiciled CDL from NY and couldn’t speak English!”
The audit, conducted by the Federal Motor Coach Safety Adminisrtation (FMCSA) revealed numerous failures by Hochul’s Department of Motor Vehicles. These include:
- Out of 200 sampled records, 107 were issued in violation of federal law—a failure rate of over 53%.
- The DMV’s systems defaulted to issuing 8-year licenses to foreign drivers for non-REAL ID licenses, regardless of when their legal status expired.
- New York issued commercial licenses to foreign drivers without providing any evidence that it had verified their current lawful presence in the United States.
“Gov. Hochul must immediately revoke these illegally issued licenses,” Duffy stated. If they refuse to follow the law, we will withhold federal highway funding.”
“In a stunning admission, New York DMV officials confirmed that their licensing system is programmed to default to an automatic 8-year expiration for non-REAL ID CDLs—intentionally disregarding the expiration of a foreign driver’s lawful presence in the U.S.,” DOT officials stated. “This systemic failure allows the state to blindly grant long-term commercial driving privileges to foreigners that expire long after the expiration of their lawful presence in the country.”
In a 20-page letter to Governor Hochul and NYDMV Commissioner Mark Schroeder, FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs ordered the state to take the followign actions to avoid the withholding of federal transportation funding:
- Immediately pause the issuance of all new, renewed, transferred, or upgraded non-domiciled CDLs or commercial learner’s permits (CLPs).
- Conduct a comprehensive internal audit to identify every non-domiciled license that was issued in violation of federal regulations and the policies, practices, and procedures that allowed for the issuance of non-compliant licenses.
- Immediately revoke all unexpired, noncompliant licenses and remove unqualified drivers from the road.
“The 2025 CDL audit uncovered that New York DMV’s license issuing practices are a grossly unacceptable deviation from federal regulations that have compromised the integrity of the state’s CDL program,” Barrs stated. “New York must act immediately to comprehensively audit its CDL program and revoke every single illegally issued licenses.”
The state has 30 days to respond to the FMCSA’s action. DOT officials said that a failure to comply and take immediate correction action will trigger the withholding of federal funds. The department also threatened to decertify the state’s entire CDL program.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He also serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.
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