The Trump administration is yanking $74 million in federal highway grants from the Empire State for refusing to comply with the feds’ demand that it boot immigrant truck drivers with expired work authorizations off the roads, The Post has learned.
The US Department of Transportation warned Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Department of Motor Vehicles, in a bombshell letter on Thursday, that continued non-compliance could lead Washington to withhold another $147 million in highway funding grants.
“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,” US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy told The Post in a statement.
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“My message to New York’s far left leadership is clear: families must be prioritized on American roads.”
The letter, obtained by The Post, asserts the New York DMV “refuses” to comply with the DOT’s previous demands that it assess thousands of commercial driver’s licenses, or CDLs, and remove those belonging to non-residents with expired work authorizations.
A small audit of the DMV by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last year found that of the approximately 32,000 New York CDLs held by non-residents, half had expiration dates expanding often years beyond when their work papers had lapsed.
“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,” FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs said.
The federal crackdown comes amid a number of high-profile accidents involving migrant truck drivers, including a Florida wreck that left three dead last year.
New York DMV staff admitted to the feds that truckers are usually approved for an eight-year permit by default, even if they are not US citizens whose work papers last for a much shorter period of time, according to the letter, signed by Barrs.
The state stopped licensing new non-resident commercial drivers in February, following an order from the Trump admin tightening restrictions.
But New York is maintaining that it’s not legally required to comply with the feds’ demands that it go back and retroactively review previously issued licenses after the DOT issued new, stronger restrictions against non-resident truck drivers earlier this year, the letter states.
“FMCSA is deeply disappointed by DMV’s refusal to take the necessary corrective actions set forth in the Preliminary Determination,” the letter states. “The withholding of Federal funds is the direct and necessary consequence of New York’s own actions and its demonstrated disregard for Federal safety standards.”
“These charges are a baseless attempt to attack blue states, because as everyone knows New York simply follows federally-issued rules when issuing commercial drivers licenses, something that even the Trump Administration has acknowledged,” Hochul spokesperson Sean Butler told The Post noting the FMCSA hadn’t taken issues with the state’s CDL program during Trump’s first administration.
“This continues a year long pattern of Secretary Duffy threatening to withhold money that keeps our roads, subways, and other infrastructure safe for New Yorkers. We will fight back, and once again we will win,” Hochul’s flak continued.
The DOT did note in the letter that the DMV provided records to show it had properly reviewed documentation to prove the lawful residence for five of six drivers it had previously flagged as non-compliant.
