The Department of Transportation has revealed that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)’s review of Illinois’ non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) program found nearly 1-in-5 licenses to have been issued illegally. Illinois has 30 days to come into compliance and revoke the illegally issued licenses—or risk losing $128 million in federal highway funding, according to the DOT.
“I need our state partners to understand that they work for the American people, not illegal immigrants who broke the law illegally entering our country and continue to break it by operating massive big rigs without the proper qualifications,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy.
In a letter sent today to Governor JB Pritzker and Illinois Director of Driver Services Kevin Duesterhaus, FMCSA outlined the audit’s findings of how the state illegally issued non-domiciled CDLs to:
- Drivers whose licenses were valid long after their lawful presence in the U.S. expired.
- Drivers without Illinois first verifying the individual’s lawful presence in the U.S.
USDOT is now demanding that Illinois take the following corrective measures to avoid funding being withheld:
- Immediately pause issuance of non-domiciled CDLs.
- Identify all unexpired non-domiciled CDLs that fail to comply with FMCSA regulations.
- Revoke and reissue all noncompliant non-domiciled CDLs if they comply with the federal requirements.
- Conduct a comprehensive internal audit to identify all procedural and programming errors, training and quality assurance problems, insufficient policies and practices, and other issues that have resulted in the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs that did not meet Federal rules.
The original announcement can be found here.
