USDOT says 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs issued by California are cancelled
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced sweeping action against non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) holders who were licensed by the state of California.
USDOT: 17,000 Illegally-Issued CDLs To Be Revoked
On November 12, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) issued a statement accusing California of widespread misconduct with the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs.
Duffy said on Wednesday that “the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has admitted to illegally issuing 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs to dangerous foreign drivers.”
From USDOT:
“Notices have been issued to the 17,000 non-domiciled CDL holders that their license no longer meets federal requirements and will expire in 60 days. FMCSA requires California to provide its full audit of all its non-domiciled CDLs so the agency can verify that every illegally issued license has been revoked and that the failures that allowed these licenses to be issued are corrected.“
USDOT reports that a nationwide Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) audit into non-domiciled CDL revealed “systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors in California’s non-domiciled CDL program which allowed thousands of CDLs to be illegally issued to foreign drivers. The audit also found that more than one in four of the non-domiciled CDL records sampled in California failed to comply with federal regulations. This includes issuing licenses that extended well beyond a foreigner’s work permit.”
Feds Accuse California Of Non-Compliance With ELP And CDL Rules
“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” said Duffy. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semi trucks and school buses.”
California has come under intense scrutiny from Duffy for failure to enforce English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards and for failure to comply with new restrictions on CDL issuance for non-citizens. Duffy has threatened to withhold $160 million in federal transportation funding to punish the state for failure to comply with federal ELP and CDL standards.
California maintains that it is in compliance with new regulations and federal law.
On Monday, November 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered an administrative stay on an FMCSA emergency interim final rule (IFR) issued in late September that limits the authority of State Driver’s Licensing Agencies (SDLAs) to issue and renew non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits (CLPs) and CDLs after a legal challenge arguing that that FMCSA failed to follow proper rulemaking procedures by issuing the IFR without notice or public comment period.