The sanctuary state of New York is in the doghouse with the Trump Administration over its anti-immigration enforcement sanctuary policies, and the Trump Transportation Department Secretary, Sean P. Duffy, announced that tens of millions of taxpayer dollars are being yanked away from New York to force it into compliance with the administration’s anti-foreign trucker regulations.
As background, a series of horrific and deadly crashes involving non-American truckers granted Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) by blue states like New York and California led to the administration cracking down on the granting of those licenses. However, some blue states have refused to go along with the new rules.
Amongst that intransigent minority is New York, which Secretary Duffy announced the crackdown on. His office revealed, in a press release, “U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy today announced that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is withholding over $73 million from the State of New York for failing to revoke illegally issued non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits (CLPs) and commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs).”
Continuing, the statement described the manifold ways in which the state has refused to comply with federal rules and regulations, saying, “FMCSA’s audit of New York’s non-domiciled CDL issuance practices found numerous failures by the state of New York including: 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.”
Yet further, the Transportation Department revealed that New York is one of the worst offenders when it comes to this sort of thing, saying, “On December 12, FMCSA found that, following a nationwide audit of CDLs, the New York Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) had been routinely issuing CDLs to foreign drivers illegally. The federal audit exposed a 53% failure rate in the records sampled, indicating a total collapse in the administration of New York’s non-domiciled CDL program.”
Continuing, it noted that New York has been warned repeatedly about its failure to comply, saying, “On March 13, FMCSA issued a formal response refuting the state’s claims of compliance and reiterating that New York had failed to complete required corrective actions, including the immediate rescission of all noncompliant non-domicile CLPs and CDLs.”
Then, noting how much taxpayer money is being yanked away until New York does what the law requires, the statement noted, “After the state’s continuous refusal to remove these dangerous drivers from the road, FMCSA has issued a final determination of substantial noncompliance and moved to withhold $73,502,543.This represents 4% of New York’s National Highway Performance Program and Surface Transportation Program Block Grant funds.”
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Secretary Duffy, for his part, issued a statement of his own saying, “I promised the American people I would hold any state leader accountable for failing to keep them safe from unvetted, unqualified foreign drivers. I’m delivering on that promise today by refusing to fund Governor Hochul’s dangerous, anti-American policies. My message to New York’s far left leadership is clear: families must be prioritized on American roads.”
Similarly, FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs was quoted as saying, “FMCSA’s mission is safety. That means ensuring that every commercial driver on the road is properly vetted and qualified. New York’s continued refusal to fix these failures undermines that mission, and we will not allow federal dollars to support a system that falls short of the law.”
Watch Illinois Gov. Pritzker freak out over his state’s federal funding getting cut off for similar reasons here: