A federal audit has found that 54 percent of North Carolina’s non domiciled commercial driver’s licenses were issued illegally. These licenses are given to drivers from other countries, mainly Canada and Mexico, who are allowed to operate large commercial trucks in the United States under strict federal rules. The review was done by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as part of a nationwide investigation into state trucking systems. What it found in North Carolina was described by federal officials as extreme and dangerous.
The audit showed that North Carolina gave out licenses to people whose lawful presence in the United States had already expired, to people who were not even eligible to receive these special licenses, and in some cases without verifying that the driver was legally allowed to be in the country at all.
Sean Duffy is the US Secretary of Transportation. He is the top federal official in charge of highway safety, trucking regulation, and transportation funding. Duffy has launched a nationwide audit to make sure that only qualified and legally authorized drivers are behind the wheel of massive commercial trucks that weigh up to 80,000 pounds.
Duffy did not hold back when describing what happened in North Carolina. He said, “North Carolina’s failure to follow the rules isn’t just shameful, it is dangerous. I am calling on state leadership to immediately remove these dangerous drivers from our roads and clean up their system.”
Duffy has already taken similar action against California, New York, and Colorado after audits showed that thousands of trucking licenses had been issued illegally in those states.
North Carolina May Lose $50 Million
The US Department of Transportation warned North Carolina that it will withhold nearly $50 million in federal transportation funding if the state does not immediately fix its trucking license system. That money supports highway safety, enforcement programs, and infrastructure that the state depends on.
Federal officials sent a letter to Governor Josh Stein and state transportation leaders demanding action. The state has been ordered to stop issuing non domiciled licenses right away, identify every unexpired license that does not comply with federal rules, revoke those licenses, and conduct a full internal audit to find out how this breakdown happened in the first place.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration called the situation in North Carolina egregious. Its administrator Derek Barrs said the agency will not hesitate to hold states accountable when public safety is being put at risk.
The federal government began paying closer attention to this issue after a deadly crash in Florida in August. A truck driver who was not authorized to be in the United States made an illegal U turn and caused a wreck that killed three people. That tragedy helped trigger the nationwide crackdown that exposed the failures in North Carolina.
Allowing drivers whose legal status has expired or who were never eligible in the first place to operate massive commercial trucks puts everyone on the road in danger. These vehicles can weigh more than 80,000 pounds, and even a small mistake can turn into a deadly disaster. Federal officials say the risk becomes even higher when states do not enforce basic requirements like lawful presence and proper documentation.
To avoid losing its federal funding, North Carolina must take several steps immediately. The state has been told to pause the issuance of all non domiciled commercial driver’s licenses. It must identify every unexpired license that does not meet federal standards. Those licenses must be revoked, and only reissued if the driver can fully meet federal requirements.
The state must also run a deep internal review of its licensing system to find programming errors, training failures, weak oversight, and broken procedures that allowed so many illegal licenses to be issued.
So far, North Carolina officials have said only that they are working to address the concerns and are committed to safety and integrity in the licensing process.
Woke Influence
It is almost impossible to believe that more than half of these licenses could have been issued illegally without anyone inside the system noticing. Federal investigators found that drivers were being approved even after their lawful presence had expired, and sometimes without any proper verification at all. That points to a system that was either badly mismanaged or deliberately relaxed in the name of political correctness.
Critics say that years of wokeness and fear of being accused of discrimination have made state agencies afraid to enforce the rules. Instead of protecting the public, the system was allowed to drift until dangerous drivers were put behind the wheel of heavy trucks.
Trucking industry groups have praised the federal crackdown. Todd Spencer, president of the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, said loopholes in the system have allowed unqualified drivers onto the highways, putting professional truckers and the public at risk. He and other industry leaders say the cleanup is long overdue.
Immigrant advocacy groups see it very differently. Groups like the Sikh Coalition and the Asian Law Caucus argue that immigrant drivers are being unfairly targeted. They say thousands of drivers could lose their jobs even though they have been working for years and keeping goods moving across the country.
