The Department of Transportation quietly ordered Utah to stop issuing or renewing non-domiciled CDLs in late January, saying the state had issued as many as 51% of its CDLs for non-citizens incorrectly.
In a letter of Preliminary Determination of Noncompliance, DOT's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration detailed "systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors" at the state level that led to CDLs going to non-citizens for incorrect term lengths.
Utah now joins North Carolina, California, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania and Minnesota as states singled out for bad practices and ordered to stop issuing non-domiciled CDLs.
Unlike with those other states (all with Democratic governors), there was no public press conference or press release announcing Utah's noncompliance.
DOT has taken a state-by-state approach to barring non-domiciled CDL issuance after its September emergency rulemaking seeking to revoke eligibility from 200,000 non-citizens got blocked by a court in November.
However, Utah did briefly, between November and January, renew some non-domiciled CDLs.
Notably, Utah gave an extension to one non-domiciled CDL holder, none other than Jorge Rivera Lujan, the owner-op whose lawsuit stopped DOT's September rule in its tracks.
[Related: Non-domiciled CDLs are back: New Jersey resumes issuance after FMCSA crackdown]
Rivera recently told Overdrive Radio he's back in the saddle with a CDL extension from the state, but just weeks after he got his paperwork settled, FMCSA shut the door behind him.
A spokesperson for Utah's Drivers License Division told Overdrive that when DOT's September rulemaking "initially went into effect, Utah proactively stopped issuing new non-domiciled CDLs that did not meet the heightened eligibility requirements."
However, when the court stopped the rule Utah remained paused on issuing new non-domiciled CDLs, but "during that window, we did allow for the renewal or correction of existing non-domiciled licenses that met previous regulatory standards," the spokesperson said.
Since FMCSA's letter, Utah has "ceased all issuance of non-domiciled CDLs that do not comply with the new federal rule," DLD said. Additionally, the state "formally notified all affected individuals by mail, advising them that they must either downgrade to a standard driver's license or face the revocation of their driving privileges in the state."
FMCSA's charges against Utah
"FMCSA found that DLD issued non-domiciled CDLs that extend beyond the expiration of drivers’ lawful presence in the United States, issued non-domiciled CDLs to citizens of Mexico not present in the United States under the DACA program, and issued non-domiciled CDLs without providing evidence that it verified the driver’s lawful presence in the United States," the agency wrote the state.
[Related: Non-domiciled CDL drivers say DOT’s new rule violates their civil rights]
If these charges sound familiar, that's because they are. DOT's main gripe with states like Utah, New York, California and others has been issuance of CDLs to non-citizens that extend past the applicant's legal work authorization or length of stay in the country.
Now Utah must take immediate corrective action or face losing up to approximately $16,300,000 in fiscal year 2027, and that could double in subsequent years.
FMCSA said Utah shared that it's issued "997 non-domiciled CLPs or CDLs that remain unexpired." In July of 2025, Utah told Overdrive it had issued 1,355 original non-domiciled CDLs since 2015.
[Related: Meet the owner-op who stopped FMCSA's non-domiciled CDL purge]
During an annual program review of Utah's practices, FMCSA said it sampled 55 records of drivers to whom DLD issued a non-domiciled CDL and found that 28 of those records, about 51%, "failed to comply with requirements in 49 CFR Parts 383 and 384."
FMCSA found 24 transactions where DLD issued a non-domiciled CDL that exceeded the expiration date of the driver’s lawful presence documents.
FMCSA also found three transactions where DLD issued non-domiciled CDLs to individuals ineligible for that credential due to their status as a citizen of Canada or Mexico not present in the United States under the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program. (Jorge Rivera Lujan is in the DACA program.)
FMCSA also "found one transaction where DLD issued a non-domiciled CDL but could not provide any evidence that it verified the driver’s lawful presence with an unexpired Employee Authorization Document or unexpired foreign passport and Form I-94 documenting the driver’s most recent admittance into the United States," the agency noted.
The letter, written by FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs, ended with a forceful conclusion:
"This is an unacceptable deviation from FMCSA’s regulations when issuing credentials to operate commercial motor vehicles. DLD must take immediate corrective action to audit its non-domiciled CDL program, correct the deficiencies that FMCSA identified above, and any deficiencies identified through the State’s internal audit, and void or rescind and reissue all non-domiciled CLPs and CDLs that failed to comply with Federal regulations at the time of issuance, renewal, transfer, or upgrade."
The September rule seeking to formally overhaul the non-domiciled CDL issuance process, effectively ending it for all but a few narrow groups of business visa holders (visas for truck driving jobs are on hold with the State Department, by the way), remains on pause on order of the court.
In March, the court will update parties to the lawsuit on the status of the proceedings.
[Related: FMCSA's non-domiciled CDL rule in limbo after court grants emergency stay motion]
