The US Transportation Department yesterday threatened to pull $73 million in funding from New York state over commercial driver licences improperly issued to non-US citizens, the latest in a series of Trump administration threats aimed at Democratic-run states.
The department said New York state must take actions to address concerns about immigrant truck drivers within 30 days or possibly lose federal highway funding after a federal audit. The agency in September issued an emergency regulation to drastically restrict commercial driver licences to immigrants or non-US citizens after a fatal crash in Florida and a government audit.
In August, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was immediately pausing the issuance of all worker visas for commercial truck drivers. “If we’re going to have drivers on American roadways, they need to be the best trained, the best skilled, because if operated incorrectly or inappropriately these are lethal weapons on American roadways,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said yesterday.
On December 1, Duffy’s department said it could withhold up to $30.4m in federal highway funding from Minnesota over commercial driver licences issued improperly to non-US residents.
Separately, the department removed nearly 3,000 commercial driver-licence training providers from a government registry for failing to properly equip trainees earlier this month and said that another 4,000 were on notice for potential noncompliance.
The department on Tuesday threatened to withhold transit funding for Chicago trains and buses, and demanded more police protection, citing an incident in which a 26-year-old woman passenger was attacked and set on fire last month.
The department previously sent similar letters over concerns about transit issues in New York City and Boston.
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