Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday revealed that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s review of Illinois’ non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses found "nearly 1-in-5 licenses to have been issued illegally."
As such, FMCSA gave Illinois 30 days to "come into compliance and revoke the illegally issued licenses -- or risk losing $128 million in federal highway funding."
Illinois has long been a hotspot for licensing non-citizens. In April 2025, Overdrive reporting revealed that the state was issuing 40% of all CDLs to non-citizens at that point in the year, a huge increase from the 2020-2022 period where the state issued just a few hundred such licenses a year.
Later reporting in July found Illinois issuing the greatest share of non-domiciled CDLs out of any of the 32 states that reported data to Overdrive.
Following FMCSA's September Interim Final Rule restricting non-domiciled CDL issuance, the state paused its non-domiciled CDL program. As Secretary Duffy said, the federal review revealed that about 20% of the state's non-domiciled CDLs didn't meet federal standards.
[Related: FMCSA issues Final Rule banning non-domiciled CDLs almost entirely]
Illinois joins Utah, North Carolina, California, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania and Minnesota and 17 other jurisdictions as those singled out for bad practices and ordered to stop issuing non-domiciled CDLs.
Problems uncovered with Illinois' non-domiciled CDL issuance were detailed in an FMCSA letter to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. FMCSA found "Illinois has issued 10,088 non-domiciled CLPs or CDLs that remain unexpired." FMCSA sampled 150 such licenses, finding that 29 of them failed to comply with federal regs.
The agency's 2025 Annual Program Review in in Illinois "uncovered evidence of systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors," the agency wrote in its letter to Pritzker.
FMCSA found 14 transactions where Illinois issued a non-domiciled CDL that exceeded the expiration date of the driver’s lawful presence documents. The agency said it clocked 15 instances where Illinois issued non-domiciled CLPs or CDLs but could not provide evidence it verified the drivers’ lawful presence. Such verification is required by law, the agency noted, with an unexpired Employment Authorization Document (EAD) or unexpired foreign passport and Form I-94 documenting the driver’s most recent admittance into the country.
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias responded to FMCSA's letter "condemning the Trump administration’s assertions regarding the state’s past handling of non-domiciled" CDLs, he wrote in a statement, adding that "Illinois, along with 23 other states and the District of Columbia, have received similar" letters.
Giannoulias blamed the federal government itself for extending the validity of EADs as it grappled with a backlog in processing the documents. Illinois does significantly comply with federal regulations and shouldn't lose funding, he added, yet the state intends to review FMCSA's findings.
FMCSA has now asked Illinois to do the following or risk losing federal highway funding:
- Immediately pause issuance of non-domiciled CDLs. 
- Identify all unexpired non-domiciled CDLs that fail to comply with FMCSA regulations.
- Revoke and reissue all noncompliant non-domiciled CDLs if they comply with the federal requirements.
- Conduct a comprehensive internal audit to identify all procedural and programming errors, training and quality assurance problems, insufficient policies and practices, and other issues that have resulted in the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs that did not meet Federal rules.   
Giannoulias' statement pointed out that the growth in non-domiciled CDL issuance has been coincidental with "the explosive increase of e-commerce and the massive shift to online retail, which has made fast and reliable delivery essential to meet consumer demand."
Additionally, the Secretary of State cited the Illinois Agricultural Association as expressing "serious concern" about pausing non-domiciled CDLs.
His response also included a statement from Matt Hart, Executive Director of the Illinois Trucking Association, who noted the "pause on the non-domicile CDL creates uncertainty for the industry that is already stretched thin and puts many in limbo."
[Related: California capitulation: CHP finally enforcing English language proficiency roadside]
FMCSA issued a new final rule in February that seeks to all but completely end non-domiciled CDL issuance in the U.S., but that's already been challenged by a lawsuit. If FMCSA's new final rule stands, the arguing about federal regs may become a moot point.
“I need our state partners to understand that they work for the American people, not illegal immigrants who broke the law illegally entering our country and continue to break it by operating massive big rigs without the proper qualifications,” Secretary Duffy said in a press release.
Duffy blamed former President Joe Biden and his DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg for forcing "Americans to share their roads with unqualified and unvetted foreign drivers."
FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs in the same press release said "the last administration looked the other way as states blatantly defied federal laws when unlawfully issuing licenses to foreign drivers. Secretary Duffy and I will be relentless in our agenda to reinstate commonsense safety standards that protect our truckers and American families."
[Related: DOT calls out Utah for lapses in non-domiciled CDL issuance]
