EXCLUSIVE: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on non-domiciled CDLs and Amtrak union employees’ Christmas bonus

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is cautioning blue states like New York against enforcing policies that give non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to unqualified drivers, many of whom are illegal immigrants.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a bombshell finding that the New York Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has routinely issued CDLs to foreign drivers illegally. “The federal audit exposed a shocking 53 percent failure rate in the records sampled, indicating a total collapse in the administration of New York’s CDL program,” DOT said.

But it’s not only New York, Duffy told the Washington Reporter. “California and New York account for half of the non-domiciled CDLs that were issued in the country,” he said. “I can’t get in their heads as to why they would allow individuals to get these licenses, especially when they’re not well-qualified. But it’s what’s happening.”

While both California and New York, under Govs. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.) and Kathy Hochul (D., N.Y.), are sanctuary states with sanctuary jurisdictions, Duffy explained that the federal government has a role to play because “you don’t just drive in New York if you get a New York commercial driver’s license. You drive around the country.”

“If you are from my home state of Wisconsin,” he said, “and you think this doesn’t impact you, it does, because the drivers with these licenses, these unqualified drivers, operate in every single state, and so everybody is at risk in the country, which is why this is a federal issue, and that is why we take it so seriously.”

Due to his department’s findings, Duffy moved to withhold almost $100 million from New York if the state continues to fail to follow the law. He said New York should revoke every illegally issued license.

Hochul’s policy is “beyond dangerous, and it is more of the reason as to why New York State is one of the most expensive places to live in the world — because we fund danger and stupidity,” former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R., N.Y.) told the Reporter. For years, D’Esposito worked as a cop in New York City.

The administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) added numbers to the points made by both Duffy and D’Esposito. “The 2025 CDL audit uncovered that New York DMV’s license issuing practices are a grossly unacceptable deviation from federal regulations that have compromised the integrity of the state’s CDL program,” Administrator Derek Barrs said. “New York must act immediately to comprehensively audit its CDL program and revoke every single illegally issued licenses.”

Duffy also had a Christmas bonus in store for Amtrak union employees, he told the Reporter.

“There was a bonus structure in place for the [Amtrak] executives, and the top executives agreed to give back half of their bonuses, and then the next tier of executives are giving back part of their bonuses as well, 40 percent,” he said. “That gave us $18 million to then give a little Christmas gift back to the transit workers, so they are going to get $900 as part of a bonus for doing great work keeping our rail working and operating really well.”