NY sues Trump administration for blocking funds in push to revoke immigrants' commercial driver's licenses

Molly Crane-Newman and Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News on Apr 24, 2026

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NEW YORK — New York filed suit against the Trump administration Friday for trying to bully state officials into revoking thousands of immigrants’ commercial driver’s licenses by blocking more than $73 million in highway funding.

The petition for review filed in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals by New York Attorney General Tish James and the state Department of Motor Vehicles asks the court to set aside an April 16 determination by the federal Department of Transportation to pull the funding on the grounds it’s arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion and flat-out illegal.

On top of the $73.5 million being blocked for fiscal year 2027, Trump’s DOT has threatened to withhold another $147 million in congressionally approved funds earmarked for New York’s highways in the coming years.

“These funds provide for the safety, maintenance, and reliability of New York’s entire transportation system; even delays endanger the safety of motorists and pedestrians,” Assistant Solicitor General Anthony Raduazo of the AG’s office wrote in the suit.

The licenses the DOT deemed noncompliant with federal standards were properly issued and belong to immigrants legally living in the U.S., according to the AG’s office, which says Trump’s DOT has sought to fit a square peg in a round hole in a warped interpretation of its own longstanding regulations.

“New Yorkers depend on safe, reliable roads and bridges to get to work, take their kids to school, and keep our economy moving,” James said in a statement. “The administration cannot promise funding to our state and then abruptly yank it away.”

“By canceling this funding, the federal government is putting jobs and communities at risk.”

The federal DOT has claimed a review found that New York has issued more than 100 licenses to immigrants without properly vetting them, a claim the AG’s office says is demonstrably false.

Last summer, U.S. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy vowed to crack down on the trucking licensing system in a nationwide audit and threatened that states would lose tens of millions of dollars in federal funds if they didn’t make immigrant drivers demonstrate their English proficiency.

Gov. Kathy Hochul noted that the DOT didn’t have an issue with the licenses during Trump’s first term in office.

“Once again, New York is facing devastating federal cuts for nothing more than political payback,” the governor said in a statement. “Here’s the truth: New York has always followed federal rules when issuing CDLs, something even the previous Trump administration verified year after year.”

“Ripping away money that goes towards critical safety upgrades on our roads is reckless and it is illegal.”

The effort is the latest by the Trump administration to bend New York to its will by clawing back federal dollars for critical infrastructure projects.

Officials said taking away the licenses could have drastic repercussions for countless industries that rely on commercial drivers and worsen the serious shortage of bus drivers currently impacting New York’s schoolchildren and their families.

The Daily News sought comment from the DOT.