WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation is giving Minnesota an ultimatum, The Daily Wire can first report: revoke illegally issued licenses given to non-domiciled commercial drivers, or face losing over $30 million in federal highway funding.
A Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration audit found that one-third of Minnesota’s non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses were issued illegally, the Transportation Department shared with The Daily Wire. Minnesota will be given 30 days to revoke the illegally issued licenses, Duffy says, or else it will pay a significant price.
“Our audit exposes yet another example of foreigners taking advantage of Minnesota services under Governor Walz’s watch,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy explained. “Minnesota failed to follow the law and illegally doled out trucking licenses to unsafe, unqualified non-citizens — endangering American families on the road. That abuse stops now under the Trump Administration.”
“The Department will withhold funding if Minnesota continues this reckless behavior that puts non-citizens gaming the system ahead of the safety of Americans,” he promised.
Walz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire.
The move comes after a number of reports showing that illegal foreign drivers caused deadly crashes, prompting the Transportation Department to zero in on states that refuse to follow the law.
In a letter sent Monday, first reviewed by The Daily Wire, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration informed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz that his state had issued an alarming number of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses illegally. The administration also outlined that its audit had found that the state issued these licenses to drivers whose “licenses were valid long after their lawful presence in the U.S. expired” and drivers who were “prohibited from holding a non-domiciled commercial CDL.”
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The state also failed to initially verify that some drivers were lawfully in the U.S.
The Transportation Department wants Minnesota to pause issuance of the non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses, identify all unexpired non-domiciled licenses that fail to comply with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations, revoke and reissue all the noncompliant licenses that failed to comply with their regulations, and conduct an internal audit to figure out how these massive errors were allowed to happen in the first place.
“Minnesota is openly and blatantly defying our rules, plain and simple,” Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Derek D. Barrs said on Monday. “Under the Trump Administration, states have two choices: meet our standards or face the consequences. Following the law is not optional.”
The move comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring proficiency in English for American truck drivers.
“They should be able to read and understand traffic signs, communicate with traffic safety, border patrol, agricultural checkpoints, and cargo weight-limit station officers,” the president said. “Drivers need to provide feedback to their employers and customers and receive related directions in English. This is common sense.”
Following Trump’s order, the Transportation Department launched an audit of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses and has highlighted severe violations in a number of blue states, including California.
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