Report: Illinois Illegally Issued 1-in-5 Trucker Licenses to Non-Residents

The state of Illinois is under a microscope for illegally issuing 20 percent of its commercial truck driver’s licenses to non-resident migrants, a government report found.

A U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) report revealed that out of 150 CDLs issued to non-residents, 29 of them were illegally issued, Just the News reported.

“The results of the DOT’s audit found that out of 150 sampled non-domiciled CDLs, 29 of them were illegally issued, according to a letter sent on Tuesday to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) and Director of Driver Services Kevin Duesterhaus,” according to the report.

The DOT further found that Pritzker’s state issued a whopping 10,088 CDLs to non-domiciled applicants.

The report notes that Illinois handed out licenses that remained valid long after the applicants’ legal residency in the U.S. had expired, allowing them to continue driving seemingly legally despite no longer being allowed residency in the U.S. The licenses also served as “valid” IDs for the migrants.

The DOT has given the state of Illinois 30 days to come into compliance and cancel or invalidate the offending licenses, or face losing $128 million in federal highway funding.

DOT ordered Illinois to “immediately pause the issuance of all new, renewed, transferred, amended, corrected, reprinted, or upgraded non-domiciled CLPs and CDLs until FMCSA provides written confirmation that the State’s corrective action plan has been accepted and implemented.”

“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,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in the letter.

“Biden and Buttigieg forced Americans to share their roads with unqualified and unvetted foreign drivers, but the Trump Administration is putting the needs of American families first where they belong,” Duffy added.

Duffy’s agency has been investigating the tens of thousands of licenses doled out to illegals by states such as New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, and others.

After four Amish men were killed in Indiana by a migrant with a truck driver’s license this month, Duffy reported that he had launched an investigation into the trucking company that hired the migrant and the state that issued the migrant’s license.

The state of Texas has also moved to put more limits on non-resident truckers with new rules to require proof of legal residency before being afforded a CDL.

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