Even though the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's emergency rule restricting states' ability to issue "non-domiciled" commercial drivers licenses is on pause due to a legal challenge, the agency continues to go after states it said were already being audited for CDL problems earlier this year. The latest is New York.

On Friday, December 12, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to pull $73 million in highway funding from New York, saying an FMCSA an audit of non-domiciled CDLs issued by the New York Department of Motor Vehicles found more than half had been issued illegally.

"What New York does is if an applicant comes in and they have a work authorization — for 30 days, 60 days, one year — New York automatically issues them an eight-year commercial driver’s license,” Duffy said during a press conference. “That’s contrary to the law.”

FMCSA’s audit of New York’s non-domiciled CDL issuance practices found:

• Out of 200 sampled records, 107 were issued in violation of federal law—a failure rate of over 53%. 

• The DMV’s systems defaulted to issuing eight-year licenses to foreign drivers for non-REAL ID licenses, regardless of when their legal status expired.

• New York issued commercial licenses to foreign drivers without providing any evidence that it had verified their current lawful presence in the United States.

Duffy has given the state 30 days to revoke all the illegal CDLs, pause any new licenses or learner’s permits from being issued, and conduct a comprehensive audit.

The New York DMV, however, disputes those findings. Spokesperson Walter McClure in a statement accused Duffy of lying. 

"Here is the truth: Commercial Drivers Licenses are regulated by the federal government, and New York State DMV has, and will continue to, comply with federal rules. Every CDL we issue is subject to verification of an applicant's lawful status through federally-issued documents reviewed in accordance with federal regulations. 

"This is just another stunt from Secretary Duffy, and it does nothing to keep our roads safer. We will review USDOT’s letter and respond accordingly.”

What's the Status of FMCSA's Emergency Rule Restricting Non-Domiciled CDLs?

An appeals court in November temporarily put a halt to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s emergency interim final rule severely restricting states’ ability to issue “non domiciled” commercial drivers licenses. Now it looks like the agency will go through the full rulemaking process.

The late-September regulation put limits on who can hold a non-domiciled CDL or commercial learner’s permit (CLP).

A non-domiciled CDL is given to someone who is legally allowed to work in the U.S. but doesn’t permanently live in the state issuing the license. This is often foreign nationals working under temporary U.S. work authorization.

In the September emergency rule, FMCSA limited non-domiciled CDL eligibility to individuals on H-2A, H-2B, or E-2 visas. It excluded other categories such as asylum seekers, refugees, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, who previously have been eligible for non-domiciled CDLs.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit temporarily stayed the rule in a November 10 order. The judges said the stay would give the court time to consider the challenges to the IFR's legality.

In early December, the court granted the agency’s request to hold the case in abeyance, effectively putting the case on hold while the FMCSA decides how it's going to handle this issue going forward.

Changes in the final rule could render the challenge to the interim rule moot.

Challenges of the Non-Domiciled CDL Rule

Two petitions were filed challenging the rule, arguing that it unlawfully bars thousands of legally authorized workers from driving commercial vehicles. 

Approximately 200,000 people will no longer be able to hold these licenses — and therefore be out of work — as a result of this rule, according to a summary of the petitions. 

Lujan v. FMCSA was filed by two commercial drivers, one a DACA recipient, the other an asylum seeker, along with two unions. King County v. FMCSA was brought by the King County, Washington, government, which employs non-domiciled CDL holders to operate its public transit fleet.

Bypassing the Required Rulemaking Process

Another challenge charged in the lawsuits was that the rule was implemented without the legally required notice and comment process required for federal regulations.

In its Federal Register notice, FMCSA said the change was needed to “restore integrity” to CDL issuance and address safety risks from applicants whose foreign driving histories cannot be verified by U.S. states. 

The rule took immediate effect, bypassing the normal notice-and-comment process. FMCSA said if it had published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the normal process, it could trigger a surge of applications from now-ineligible drivers, Regulatory and safety consultant Brandon Wiseman of Trucksafe Consulting explained in a blog post.

Wiseman explained that the stay conceivably means states can resume issuing and renewing non-domiciled CDLs under prior rules, unless they choose to continue applying the new rules voluntarily. 

“That means drivers such as asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients may be able to seek or renew CDLs while the litigation continues," Wiseman said.

However, FMCSA has said that the stay doesn't apply to states that it already had put on notice of non-domiciled CDL problems, such as California. Duffy has threatened to withhold funds from California and other states unless they take action to limit non-domiciled CDLs.

Looking Ahead to a Potentially Revised Final Rule

FMCSA kept the public-comment docket open through November 28, 2025, signaling that it intends to finalize the rule regardless of the ongoing litigation, he said.

In a December interview, Wiseman told HDT that he expects the agency will go ahead and complete the full rulemaking process. Given there were some 8,000 comments on the rulemaking, that's not likely to be completed until sometime in 2026.

"Ultimately, the court’s eventual merits ruling will clarify how far FMCSA’s statutory authority extends over non-domiciled driver eligibility and how much process the agency must follow when safety and immigration issues intersect," he said in his blog post.

A coalition of attorneys general from Massachusetts, California, 16 other states and the District of Columbia said in comments filed on the IFR that “these unlawful actions have harmed and will continue to harm our states."

Most trucking groups have been supportive of the rule change, but nevertheless warn of potential disruption. 

The Washington Trucking Associations comments explained that while its members “strongly support” the objectives, the limits imposed on those eligible for non-domiciled CDLs “has resulted in a significant number of drivers with strong safety records either losing or facing imminent downgrades of their CDLs."

What’s the Problem With Non-Domiciled Licenses?

As the American Trucking Associations explained in a blog post, “a non-domiciled CDL is given to someone who is legally allowed to work in the U.S. but doesn’t permanently live in the state issuing the license — often foreign nationals working under temporary U.S. work authorization.

“These licenses can’t be issued to Mexican and Canadian drivers, since they’re already covered by agreements between our countries. But they must meet the same rigorous federal testing standards as all CDLs.

“The problem is that federal audits have shown that several states aren’t living up to those standards.”

States aren't required to offer non-domiciled CDLs, and many have taken action to overhaul or even cancel those programs in the wake of the FMCSA's actions.

Nevada announced in early November that it would phase out the issuance and renewal of Limited-Term (non-domiciled) Commercial Learner’s Permits (CLPs) and Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) 

Duffy has targeted other states, including Pennsylvania and Minnesota.

Federal Database Not Helping the Situation

A high-profile case led to an attack on Pennslvania's CDL program after the Kansas arrest of Akhror Bozorov, an immigrant wanted in his origin country of Uzbekistan for belonging to a terrorist organization, who had a non-domiciled CDL from Pennsylvania.

He illegally entered the United States in February 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security, after Uzbekistan issued an arrest warrant for Bozorov in 2022.

However, Pennsylvania officials have said the federal government is to blame for showing drivers like this as eligible for licenses in a federal database.

PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll testified in front of the Senate Transportation Committee earlier this month that PennDOT retains copies of non-domiciled CDL applicants’ immigration documents, and also vets that information with the federal Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Verification for Alien Entitlements (SAVE) database.

Bozorov “was run through the SAVE system in July by PennDOT. The Department of Homeland Security greenlit, gave us approval to issue the license,” Carroll said, according to Pennlive.com. 

And when PennDOT re-ran the query after news of the arrest broke, he said, Bozorov still showed as being cleared to work as a commercial truck driver.

California Targeted for Licensing Program

The FMCSA particularly has targeted California’s issuance of non-domiciled commercial licenses.

The state has been under scrutiny regarding its CDL program since a highly publicized fatal August crash in Florida where a truck driver making an illegal U-turn.

On November 12, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy sent out a release headlined “Newsom Caught Red-Handed,” saying that the California Department of Motor Vehicles “admitted to illegally issuing 17,000 non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) to dangerous foreign drivers.”

Notices have been issued to the 17,000 non-domiciled CDL holders that their license no longer meets federal requirements and will expire in 60 days. 

FMCSA said California must provide its full audit of all its non-domiciled CDLs so the agency can verify that every illegally issued license has been revoked and that the failures that allowed these licenses to be issued are corrected, according to the FMCSA news release.

In October, Duffy announced that the Department of Transportation is withholding over $40 million from California following an investigation that found the state has failed to comply with the Department’s English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards. 

One driver from India, in comments on the IFR, explained that he has lived in the Sacramento area for more than six years with his family. "I am here on WORK-PERMIT. And my green card and citizen processing is still pending. I have two kids 2 year and 8 year. I am only the person who’s work in my house and take care my family. I am here because i wanna make ours better future, we are working hard and follow the country rules and regulations."

Legislative Actions to Restrict Non-Domiciled Commercial Licenses

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has supported the Trump administration’s actions on non-domiciled CDLs.

“For too long, loopholes in this program have allowed unqualified drivers onto our highways, putting professional truckers and the motoring public at risk,” said President Todd Spencer in a statement.

“While the policy itself is sound, it is now tied up in court over procedural technicalities in how the rule was issued, not its substance.”

In its comments on the IFR, OOIDA said, "Reforming NDCDL requirements is a major turning point for raising entry-level driver qualifications for all commercial drivers. For years, large carriers and their representatives on Capitol Hill have peddled the myth of a driver shortage to advance policies that get cheap labor behind the wheel of heavy-duty trucks. The goal of these policies is to get as many new drivers in the truck as quickly and cheaply as possible.

"We have been warning lawmakers and regulators about the safety risks of the shortage myth and its adjacent policy proposals, and unsurprisingly, we have recently seen disastrous safety consequences. The alleged need for NDCDLs is just one of the policies that has been justified by the shortage myth."

Last month, Congressman David Rouzer (R-NC) introduced H.R. 5688, the Non-Domiciled CDL Integrity Act, to make the FMCSA’s non-domiciled CDL restrictions permanent.

OOIDA’s Spencer said, “Passing this bill and getting it signed into law will protect these critical safety reforms from being undone by future court decisions or a new administration.”