Duffy warns Walz to revoke illegally issued CDLs from non-citizens or lose $30M in highway funding

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) to revoke illegally issued commercial driver's licenses from non-citizens or lose over $30 million in federal highway funding.

"It just keeps getting worse for @GovTimWalz," Duffy posted on X on Monday. "Just one day after 400 BRAVE employees from @MinnesotaDHS exposed 'massive fraud,' @USDOT has discovered that ONE THIRD of non-domiciled CDLs were issued ILLEGALLY in the state. MINNESOTA: You’re on notice. You have 30 days to fix this or lose $30 million in federal funding."

Duffy reposted a Daily Wire article in which he told the outlet that a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration audit found that one-third of Minnesota’s non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses were issued illegally.

“Our audit exposes yet another example of foreigners taking advantage of Minnesota services under Governor Walz’s watch,” Duffy told the Daily Wire. “Minnesota failed to follow the law and illegally doled out trucking licenses to unsafe, unqualified non-citizens — endangering American families on the road. That abuse stops now under the Trump Administration.”

“The Department will withhold funding if Minnesota continues this reckless behavior that puts non-citizens gaming the system ahead of the safety of Americans,” he said.

Walz did not respond to the outlet's request for comment.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration told Walz in a letter that his state had illegally issued a large number of non-domiciled CDLs, and that its audit had found that Minnesota issued them to drivers whose “licenses were valid long after their lawful presence in the U.S. expired” and drivers who were “prohibited from holding a non-domiciled commercial CDL.”

Minnesota also failed to initially verify that some drivers were lawfully in the U.S., per the letter.

The Transportation Department requested Minnesota to stop issuing non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses, identify all unexpired non-domiciled licenses that fail to comply with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations, revoke and reissue all the noncompliant licenses that failed to comply with their regulations, and conduct an internal audit to determine how these errors occurred.

“Minnesota is openly and blatantly defying our rules, plain and simple,” Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Derek Barrs said Monday. “Under the Trump Administration, states have two choices: meet our standards or face the consequences. Following the law is not optional.”