DOT on Friday held a press conference and released a new Interim Final Rule related to non-domiciled CDL issuance that intends to push almost 200,000 non-citizen drivers out of the industry, and potentially boost rates for domestic carriers.
- FMCSA found approximately 200,000 non-domiciled CDL holders, and approximately 20,000 non-domiciled commercial learner's permit (CLP) holders.
- Non-domiciled CDL holders will now have to renew their license in person annually, and FMCSA expects 194,000 of them won't make the cut within two years.
- FMCSA found one in four non-domiciled CDLs in California were issued improperly, and other major issues exist in Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington.
- States that issue non-domiciled CDLs and CLPs will be required to pause issuance of those CDLs and CLPs until they can ensure compliance with the updated regulations.
- California, home of the most "egregious" licensing violations, got an additional letter giving the state 30 days to come into compliance with the new regulations or face having its CDL program decertified and a loss of up to $160 million in highway funding.
DOT Secretary Sean Duffy's move follows an April executive order from President Donald Trump to enforce English language proficiency and investigate the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs.
Duffy said currently the licensing system for non-citizens is "absolutely 100 percent broken" and a "national emergency that requires action right now." As such, the interim final rule isn't a typical rulemaking that proceeds with a comment period before taking effect. It is effective immediately, he said.
FMCSA noted a string of recent, fatal crashes involving non-domiciled CDL holders -- such as the Florida turnpike U-turn crash, the Terrell, Texas sleeping driver crash, and the I-35 crash involving a driver on depressants -- prompted the move.
"Since the beginning of the 2025 calendar year, FMCSA has identified at least five fatal crashes involving non-domiciled CDL holders," FMCSA's rulemaking states. "At least two of these drivers were improperly issued a CDL, while others held CDLs that complied with the regulations in place at the time of issuance but would not be eligible for a non-domiciled CDL under the revised regulations."
Duffy in the press conference detailed three of those deadly crashes, saying DOT worked to "get to the bottom" of what's causing the crashes.
"It's been alleged that open borders policies led to an exploitation of our nations’ trucking licensing system," said Duffy. "Those reports are all true. What our audit has already discovered should anger every single American."
Duffy described a "systemic breakdown among states to follow the law and issue licenses properly" with states "failing to follow even most basic procedures" including "computer programming flaws" and generally a "gross lack of oversight" of licensing for non-citizens.
[Related: Rise of the non-domiciled CDL for non-citizen truck drivers: Safety, rates, security]
At the press conference, Duffy showed the results of a two-week on-site inspection of California's licensing practices that revealed licenses being issued for months or years longer than an applicant had the legal right to work in the U.S. Duffy showed evidence of California issuing non-domiciled CDLs to Mexican citizens, who like Canadians are not eligible for U.S. CDLs.
California issued a non-domiciled CDL to school bus drivers, sometimes without bothering to verify applicants' legal presence in the country, Duffy said. The investigation uncovered a "shocking and an unacceptable failure" to follow federal guidelines and a "reckless disregard" for safety.
Duffy added that "California has 30 days to fix this," and that DOT additionally found major issues in Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington.
"In good faith we cannot permit this demonstrably failed non-domiciled CDL credentialing system to continue in its current framework," said FMCSA Chief Counsel Jesse Elison at the press conference. Non-domiciled CDLs were created for U.S. citizens who lived in jurisdictions that had been stripped of their ability to issue CDLs, he added, and the new emergency rule restores the practice to its original roots.
As such, an Employer Authorization Document "alone will not be sufficient to obtain a CDL," he said. Now only H-2B, H-2A and E-2 visa holders will be able to obtain non-domiciled CDLs and "every single issuance and renewal" of the CDL must go through federal databases and happen in person.
The renewal period for non-domiciled CDLs has also been shortened to the end of the employee work authorization or one year, "whichever comes first" said Elison. The move is "prospective" and "doesn't effect non-domiciled CDLs today," but of the 200,000 such CDLs and 20,000 CLPs DOT found, the "impact under the current rules will effectively remove about 190,000" drivers from the industry.
"It will be significant," Elison added, noting that's about five percent of the overall CDL population.
Duffy said that if DOT found a way to make these actions "retroactive," it would, but in the meantime encouraged states to "take immediate action to correct deficiencies" and to "void and rescind all improperly issued" CDLs.
"FMCSA anticipates that these drivers will exit the market within approximately two years as their credential comes up for renewal, and that the market will respond to this change in capacity as it has in the past, with rates adjusting and drivers and carriers entering the market where needed," FMCSA's rulemaking said.
[Related: Trump DOT 'ELP mandate' could boost rates 15%: Analysis]
Duffy took a question from the media at the conference about the "driver shortage" narrative and whether the removal of the non-domiciled CDL drivers would impact the freight market.
"We don’t need non-domiciled CDL drivers to make sure our goods flow through the country," said Duffy. "We have American drivers who rare ready willing and able to take those loads."
Duffy said he had not spoken to California Governor Gavin Newsom about the actions against California, but that he didn't want to make this political. "This is a space where politics doesn't belong," he said, noting that Republican-led states also need to improve their CDL issuance systems.
Overdrive asked all 50 states how many non-domiciled CDLs they had issued in the last ten years and released a report in July that found evidence of 60,000 active non-domiciled CDLs in the country, but those results did not include input from big states like California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado and some others.
California specifically told Overdrive it does not track how many CDLs it issues to non-citizens, but FMCSA investigators seem to have found hard numbers. Elison said there were more than "60,000 non-domiciled CDLs issued in California" last year and that potentially 15,000 were done improperly.
Now California must complete an internal audit and immediately stop issuing non-domiciled CDLs.
Overdrive readers polled over the summer supported banning non-domiciled CDLs for foreighn citizens in total, with 64% in favor.
California had already been on notice since August 26 that it could lose federal funding for refusing to enforce English language proficiency regulations, and California Highway Patrol personnel confirmed to Overdrive that the state still does not put drivers out-of-service for failing to speak English.
Elison said that California had submitted a letter on its compliance with the ELP regs, and that FMCSA was reviewing it.
[Related: California defies DOT's 30-day deadline for ELP enforcement, faces potential $30M funding loss]
