Weeks after Oklahoma pulled over illegal immigrant truck drivers and arrested hundreds of them, the federal transportation department is doing the same, and also criticizing Colorado for not following suit.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasted Colorado this week for slow walking the purge of illegally issued truck licenses. He’s threatening that if Colorado does not immediately pull the licenses and gain compliance, Colorado could lose $24 million in federal highway funding. He said the DOT has the ability to “decertify” the state’s CDL program.
“Colorado doesn’t get to pick and choose what federal rules it follows – especially when the driving public is at risk,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “It’s been nearly two months since Colorado admitted that they knowingly broke the law and gave Mexican nationals trucking licenses. Colorado has two options: revoke the licenses immediately, or I will pull federal funding. Every day that goes by is another day unqualified, unvetted foreign truckers are jeopardizing the safety of you and your family.”
This October, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) nationwide audit uncovered roughly 22% of Colorado non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) were issued illegally. Many of these licenses were given to Mexican nationals – which is explicitly prohibited under federal regulations.
When pressed, Colorado admitted that these violations were not accidental, but the result of a 2016 statewide policy decision to disregard federal law and give trucking licenses to ineligible Mexican citizens. The state has also allowed non-domiciled CDL expiration dates to exceed the drivers’ lawful presence documents, effectively allowing individuals to drive trucks on American roadways long after their legal status to remain in the country had expired.
Despite receiving the notice of non-compliance, Colorado officials have failed to produce a completed audit or a full accounting of the illegal licenses. The state is still unable to account for how many unqualified drivers are currently on the road, nor have they completed the necessary actions to revoke these credentials. This continued delay signals a lack of urgency that puts public safety at risk.
By slow walking the license purge, Colorado is violating federal rules and leaving every one of their improperly credentialed drivers’ free to operate 80,000-lb trucks, according to the DOT.