- Trump
administration threatens to withhold $75 million from Pennsylvania. - Demand
to revoke allegedly illegal commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants. - Action
follows discovery of Uzbek terror suspect with Pennsylvania CDL.
After taking similar measures against California, U.S.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is now focusing on Pennsylvania. Democratic
governors in charge of both states have expressed disapproval of President
Donald Trump’s administration and are thought to be strong candidates for the
party’s 2028 presidential nomination.
Since August, when an unauthorized tractor-trailer driver
did an illegal U-turn and caused a tragedy in Florida that claimed three lives,
Duffy has made it a top priority to examine the licensing process. The public
became aware of the problem as a result of that episode.
The number of Pennsylvania residents who might be impacted
is unknown. Two out of 150 individuals were detected in an audit, according to
a letter from the Republican administration to Pennsylvania Governor Josh
Shapiro.
In addition to stopping the issuing of new, renewed,
and transferred commercial driver’s licenses and permits, the Trump
administration is urging Pennsylvania to carry out an audit to determine whose
licenses have expirations longer than the driver’s permitted stay in the
nation.
Additionally, it requests that the state cancel non
compliant licenses and take such drivers off the road.
Gavin Newsom and Shapiro, the governors of California and
Pennsylvania, are fierce opponents of Trump and have frequently been singled
out by his administration.
According to Shapiro’s administration, the Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration published a rule in late September that would
significantly restrict the number of immigrants who may obtain a commercial
driver’s license. As a result, the state transportation department halted
issuing all commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens.
The order has been temporarily suspended by a federal judge,
but according to Shapiro’s administration, the transportation department has
not yet started issuing “non-domiciled CDLs.”
This week, Shapiro also inferred that the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security was failing to adequately manage a vital database that states
use to corroborate an emigrant’s legal status previous to granting a noncitizen
motorist’s license.
His reflections followed the Department of Homeland
Security’s advertisement that it had detained an Uzbek public who held a
Pennsylvania- issued marketable motorist’s license. According to the
department, the existent, whose work authorization was issued in 2024, was
wanted in his native country for being a member of a terrorist group.
“They clearly are not minding the shop, and they’ve gotta
get better, because every single state in the country relies on this database
when making a determination as to who qualifies for a CDL. We relied on the
feds before issuing this one,”
Shapiro said.
What federal law allows withholding highway funds over CDL
issues?
The civil law that allows withholding trace finances over
issues related to marketable motorist’s licenses (CDLs) is codified in 49 CFR
§384.401, which pertains to the withholding of finances grounded on resistance
by countries.
Up to 4 percent of the civil trace finances allocated to a
state under 23 U.S.C.§104( b)( 1) and( 2) can be withheld following the first
time of resistance. Larger penalties, including implicit decertification of the
state’s CDL program and withholding of over 8 percent of civil finances, can
occur in cases of continued resistance in posterior times.
This regulation provides the legal basis for the civil
government’s capability to apply compliance by withholding significant portions
of trace backing if countries fail to duly regulate and corroborate CDL
allocation practices, especially concerning non-citizens or individualities
with unlawfully issued licenses.
