New York filed suit Friday against the Trump administration after it pulled $73 million from the state’s federal highway funding after the state refused to revoke commercial driver’s licenses for non-citizens.
The suit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by Attorney General Letitia James, is the latest move in an ongoing fight between New York and federal government over the state’s policy of allowing non-citizen residents to hold commercial drivers licenses.
New York allows people who are not citizens, but are legally in the country and hold federal work authorization, to hold commercial driver’s licenses, or CDLs. Per directives from the Trump administration, the state in February limited its issuance of CDLs to only non-citizens who held H-2A, H-2B or E-2 visas, but has declined to to revoke CDLs from non-citizens who already had them and only hold federal work authorization and not one of those visas.
The Trump administration has been critical of New York’s policy to allow non-citizens who don’t hold one of those three visas to hold CDLs, calling them dangerous drivers without pointing to broad evidence showing such. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has pushed back against the Trump administration’s claims and holds the state is in full compliance with federal rules surrounding CDLs.
James’ suit alleges the federal government’s refusal to disperse the funding is arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, outside of the government’s authority and unsupported by substantial evidence.
“Among other flaws, [the federal government’s] final determination is predicated on an erroneous reading of its own long-standing regulations governing the issuance of CDLs to nondomiciled individuals, and the relevant standards for establishing a finding of substantial noncompliance,” the suit reads.
In response to the attorney general’s suit, the U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said withholding the highway funding was to hold the state accountable “for failing to keep [Americans] safe from unvetted, unqualified foreign drivers,” and because the Trump administration was “refusing to fund Governor Hochul’s dangerous, anti-American policies.”
“My message to New York’s far left leadership is clear: families must be prioritized on American roads,” Duffy said in a statement.
Hochul said the Trump administration’s pulling of the federal highway funding was not based on safety decisions, as the state is following current federal rules when issuing CDLs. She called it purely a political move.
“New York has always followed federal rules when issuing CDLs, something even the previous Trump Administration verified year after year,” Hochul said. “Ripping away money that goes towards critical safety upgrades on our roads is reckless and it is illegal.”
The $73 million pulled by the Trump administration would have been used to “provide for the safety, maintenance, and reliability of New York’s entire transportation system,” according to the suit, which says that even delays to the state getting the funds “endanger the safety of motorists and pedestrians.”
The suit adds that, as things currently stand, New York could be set to lose $147 million in federal highway funds annually in future years.
James said the federal government was putting New York’s safety and infrastructure at risk by pulling the funding.
“New Yorkers depend on safe, reliable roads and bridges to get to work, take their kids to school, and keep our economy moving. The administration cannot promise funding to our state and then abruptly yank it away,” James said. “By cancelling this funding, the federal government is putting jobs and communities at risk.”
