Minnesota Driver and Vehicle Services director Pong Xiong announced Tuesday that Minnesota had immediately paused issuing non-domiciled CDLs following a U.S. Department of Transportation audit that found one-third of those issued by the state were "issued illegally."
That report, according to federal transportation officials, alleged that Minnesota issued licenses to those prohibited from having them and drivers whose "lawful presences in the U.S. expired." Their report also suggested that an audit was conducted after months of crashes caused by "illegal foreign drivers."
Non-domiciled CDL's are issued to people who are not U.S. citizens or permanent resident, but are authorized to work in the United States.
According to Xiong, that claim of illegal foreign drivers causing crashes in Minnesota doesn't hold up.
"We have no evidence Minnesota non-domiciled CDL holders compromised public safety in any way," Xiong noted in a statement.
Minnesota DVS said an audit this year found administrative errors including errors with issuing non-domiciled CDLs.
"Those customers who were ineligible were notified that their CDL driving privileges were canceled."
Federal officials said Minnesota had 30 days to come into compliance, or risk losing $30.4 million in federal funding.
"We are following the law exactly as it's written, exactly as we implemented it for decades, and coincidentally today they decided to keep piling these things on," said Minnesota Goveronr Tim Walz on Tuesday.
Minnesota has 212,327 standard commercial driver’s license holders and 2,117 non-domiciled CDL holders. DVS said all applicants take the same tests in English and must go through the same knowledge and behind the wheel testing to demonstrate the same ability to safely operate a commercial vehicle as all standard CDL applicants.
"Earlier this year we audited our processes and identified and corrected some administrative errors with issuing non-domiciled CDLs, including notifying customers who were ineligible that their CDL privileges were canceled. As DVS was implementing the corrective action, FMCSA conducted an audit that affirmed the issues already identified by DVS and have now been corrected. DVS was aware of, and prepared for, most of these findings. DVS contests what we believe are inaccuracies in some of the findings listed in the letter received on Monday. The agency will also be seeking clarity on some required corrections that seem to be tied to the new CDL rules issued on Sept. 29. Those rules were not in effect at the time of the audit and are subject to a court-ordered stay by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit."