Trump Admin Threatens To Withhold $75M From Blue State That Gave Commercial Driver’s Licenses To Illegals

The Trump administration is taking on yet another blue state for issuing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has threatened to withhold $75 million in federal funding from Pennsylvania if the state refuses to stop handing out trucking licenses to illegal immigrant drivers, The Daily Wire has learned. It comes after an Uzbek illegal immigrant who had an international warrant for terrorist activity was pulled over in Kansas and discovered to have a Pennsylvania commercial driver’s license.

Duffy highlighted his concerns in a letter sent to Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro on Wednesday, claiming that Pennsylvania issued “non-domiciled CDLs [commercial driver’s licenses] with an expiration date that extended well beyond the driver’s authorized stay in the United States and failed “to require any proof of lawful presence before issuing a CDL [commercial driver’s license].”

“Under President Trump, this Department is taking every measure to ensure dangerous foreign drivers aren’t illegally operating 40-ton vehicles on American roads,” Duffy said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire on Thursday.

He continued: “Joe Biden allowed tens of millions of illegals to pour into our country through open borders, including a suspected terrorist who Pennsylvania then allowed to get behind the wheel of a semitruck. I will continue to fight to get these dangerous drivers off our roads to protect American families and support our national security.”

Shapiro’s office, however, defends that they’ve complied with federal audit requirements, which they said found no cases of concern.

“Following the release of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association’s (FMCSA) Interim Final Rule on September 29, 2025, PennDOT immediately paused issuing all non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). PennDOT [Pennsylvania Department of Transportation] fully cooperated with FMCSA’s regularly-scheduled audit – and out of 150 cases the federal government audited, FMSCA did not identify a single commercial driver’s license issued to someone who was not eligible,” Shapiro’s office told The Daily Wire.

They also claimed that they have several layers of checks to ensure commercial driver’s licenses don’t end up in the hands of illegal immigrants.

“All non-citizens who apply for driver’s licenses, including CDLs [commercial driver’s licenses], must provide PennDOT with proof of identity and must have their legal presence in this country verified through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database – a database maintained by the United States Department of Homeland Security. PennDOT follows the established federal process for confirming that the applicant was lawfully present using the SAVE database in every case,” the governor’s office said.

“PennDOT’s top priority is safety on our roadways and ensuring only those legally eligible are able to secure a license. The Department is reviewing FMCSA’s letter and will respond within the required timeline,” they added.

In response to a series of fatal crashes, the Trump administration has taken steps to stop the issuance of commercial licenses to illegal immigrants, while also auditing states that have already handed them out.

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Much of the blame has been placed on California, which issued 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses to foreign drivers, the agency said earlier this month. Non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses allow truckers certified in one state to work for companies in other states.

The Department of Transportation has already withheld $40 million from California after a federal investigation found that state authorities weren’t enforcing the English-language requirement for truck drivers.

Florida is also suing California after illegal immigrant Harjinder Singh, who was issued a commercial driver’s license in the Golden State, allegedly killed three people while making an illegal U-turn in August in the Sunshine State.