North Carolina is the ninth state targeted in Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s nationwide review of commercial driver’s licensing practices — a crackdown that has generated legal challenges and accusations of discriminatory targeting of immigrant truckers.
The U.S. Transportation Department warned North Carolina on Thursday that the state could lose nearly $50 million in federal funding unless it revokes commercial driver’s licenses issued to immigrants who are not qualified to hold them. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reviewed 50 such licenses that North Carolina had issued to immigrants and found problems with more than half. Records show 924 unexpired licenses of this type remain active in the state.
“North Carolina’s failure to follow the rules isn’t just shameful — it’s dangerous,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.
North Carolina DMV spokesman Marty Homan said the state is working to address the concerns and remains “committed to upholding safety and integrity in our licensing processes.”
Ninth state in a nationwide review
North Carolina is the ninth state targeted since Duffy launched a nationwide review of commercial driver’s licensing practices for immigrant drivers. The review began drawing public attention after a truck driver who was not authorized to be in the United States made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida in August that killed three people.
Duffy has pulled nearly $200 million from California, citing concerns about that state’s licensing practices and its decision to delay the revocations of more than 17,000 invalid licenses. Duffy also said California is not enforcing English proficiency requirements for truckers.
He previously threatened to withhold millions in federal funding from Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New York, Texas, South Dakota, Colorado, and Washington after audits found significant problems, including commercial licenses that remained valid long after an immigrant driver’s work permit expired.
Tennessee acts on its own
Separately, Tennessee announced Thursday that it had launched its own review of commercial driver’s licenses and will notify about 8,800 of the state’s 150,000 CDL holders that they need to provide proof of citizenship or a valid visa to keep their licenses.
Russell Shoup, assistant commissioner of Tennessee’s Driver Services Division, said the state is working to ensure all licenses it has issued meet current state and federal standards.
Praise from trucking industry, pushback from immigrant groups
Trucking groups have praised the federal crackdown. The industry has said that too often drivers who should not hold licenses — or who cannot speak English — have been allowed to operate trucks weighing up to 80,000 pounds.
Immigrant groups say some drivers are being unfairly targeted. The crackdown has drawn particular attention to Sikh truckers, because the driver in the Florida crash and the driver in a separate fatal crash in California in October were both Sikhs. The Sikh Coalition, a national civil rights organization, and the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus filed a class-action lawsuit against California over that state’s plan to revoke thousands of licenses.
Immigrants account for about 20% of all truck drivers. The non-domiciled licenses at the center of the federal review — a category available to immigrants — represent about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses, or roughly 200,000 drivers nationwide.
The Transportation Department has also proposed new restrictions that would severely limit which noncitizens could obtain commercial driver’s licenses, but a court has placed those proposed rules on hold.