When Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday that 54% of North Carolina’s non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses failed federal review, the number landed like a gut punch to an industry already reeling from systemic failures in state licensing programs. Of the 50 CDLs FMCSA auditors examined, 27 were issued in direct violation of federal regulations. Nearly $50 million in federal highway funding now hangs in the balance.
None of this should surprise anyone who’s been paying attention. The non-domiciled CDL program has been a ticking time bomb for years, and we in the compliance world have watched it with growing alarm as state after state treated federal requirements like suggestions rather than law.
According to the FMCSA’s audit findings, North Carolina’s Division of Motor Vehicles committed violations in three categories that should concern every fleet operator and safety-conscious driver. Nineteen of the 27 problematic licenses were issued with expiration dates that extended beyond the driver’s lawful presence documentation, meaning drivers could legally operate 80,000-pound rigs on American highways long after their authorization to be in the country had expired.
Another eight licenses were issued without documentation verifying the state’s verification of lawful presence. No Employment Authorization Document on file. No passport with I-94. A CDL was handed over without the basic verification steps required by federal law. Two additional licenses went to Mexican citizens who weren’t covered under DACA, which is the only pathway for Canadian or Mexican nationals to obtain a non-domiciled CDL, since reciprocity agreements allow drivers from those countries to operate in cross-border freight with their home-country licenses.
In their response, the North Carolina DMV said it is “committed to upholding safety and integrity in our licensing processes” and has been “collaborating closely with our federal partners for several months.” That language should sound familiar; it’s the same boilerplate we’ve heard from California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and every other state caught with their hand in the compliance cookie jar.
To understand how we got here, you have to understand August 12, 2025. That’s the day Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old Indian national operating on a California-issued non-domiciled CDL, attempted an illegal U-turn through an “Official Use Only” access point on Florida’s Turnpike near Fort Pierce. His tractor-trailer blocked all northbound lanes. A minivan had no time to react. Three people died instantly.
Singh had entered the country illegally in 2018, was processed for expedited removal, claimed asylum, and was eventually released on bond. Despite having his work authorization rejected during the first Trump administration in September 2020, he obtained a new Employment Authorization Document in April 2025. California issued him a non-domiciled CDL in July 2024. A month before the fatal crash, he was pulled over for speeding in New Mexico, body camera footage shows him struggling to communicate in English, yet no English Language Proficiency assessment was administered.
Then came October 21, 2025, when another driver,21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh, also from India, allegedly drove his semi-truck under the influence of drugs into stopped traffic on California’s I-10 in Ontario, killing three more people. The Department of Transportation later determined that California had upgraded his CDL just days before the crash, even after the federal emergency rule had been issued specifically prohibiting such actions for asylum seekers.
These weren’t isolated incidents. FMCSA identified at least five fatal crashes involving non-domiciled CDL holders in 2025 alone. That’s five crashes too many when the root cause is administrative negligence.
For those outside the regulatory weeds, here’s the crash course. Under 49 U.S.C. Section 31311, states can issue commercial driver’s licenses to individuals who are neither citizens nor permanent residents, people “not domiciled” in the United States. This pathway was specifically designed for drivers from countries that don’t have CDL testing and licensing standards equivalent to ours. Canadian and Mexican nationals are explicitly excluded because their home-country CDLs are already recognized through reciprocity agreements.
Before the September 2025 emergency rule, the requirements were straightforward: provide an unexpired Employment Authorization Document or an unexpired foreign passport with an I-94 form documenting your most recent entry. States were supposed to verify this documentation before issuing the CDL and ensure the license expiration didn’t exceed the driver’s lawful presence authorization.
The problem? States weren’t doing the verification. Programming errors in DMV systems allowed licenses to be issued with incorrect expiration dates. Staff training was inadequate. Quality control was nonexistent. The result was approximately 200,000 non-domiciled CDLs active nationwide, about 5% of all CDL holders, with an unknown but clearly substantial portion issued in violation of the rules.
North Carolina is the ninth state to face FMCSA enforcement action since Duffy launched the nationwide audit in June 2025. California’s 25% non-compliance rate earned it nearly $200 million in withheld funding. Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New York, Texas, South Dakota, Colorado, and Washington have all been put on notice. Tennessee proactively launched its own review and is notifying 8,800 of its 150,000 CDL holders that they need to provide proof of citizenship or valid visa status.
North Carolina’s 54% failure rate stands out. It’s the worst in the nation. More than half of the licenses reviewed were improperly issued. This is systemic failure at scale.
Records show 924 non-domiciled CDLs remain unexpired in North Carolina. If the audit sample is representative, and there’s no reason to think it isn’t, that means roughly 500 drivers on North Carolina roads right now may be operating illegally issued licenses.
If you’re a fleet operator with non-domiciled CDL holders on your payroll, the time to act was yesterday. FMCSA has made clear that states must immediately pause issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, identify all noncompliant licenses, and revoke or reissue them if the driver can meet the new federal requirements. That process will create chaos in driver qualification files across the country.
Start auditing your driver files now. Verify visa classifications, CDL expiration dates, and SAVE system verification status for every non-domiciled driver. Update your hiring and onboarding policies to flag applicants who may no longer qualify. Train your compliance teams on the new verification procedures.
The September 2025 emergency rule, currently stayed by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals pending review, would limit non-domiciled CDLs to holders of H-2A, H-2B, or E-2 visas. That would exclude DACA recipients, asylum seekers, refugees, and individuals with Temporary Protected Status. The DOT estimates this would affect 97% of non-domiciled CDL holders, potentially removing 194,000 drivers from the market if the rule takes effect.
Immigrant drivers make up nearly 20% of the American trucking workforce. The vast majority are hardworking professionals who followed the rules, obtained their licenses legally, and keep freight moving every day. They deserve better than to be painted with the same brush as a broken state bureaucracy that couldn’t be bothered to follow its own procedures.
The Sikh Coalition and Asian Law Caucus have filed lawsuits arguing that immigrant truckers are being unfairly targeted. They have a point about selective enforcement and public perception. When a non-immigrant driver causes a fatal crash, we rarely see immigration status mentioned in the headline. When it’s an immigrant driver, it becomes the story.
This isn’t about immigration policy. It’s about licensing integrity. The federal government established requirements for non-domiciled CDLs. States agreed to follow those requirements in exchange for federal highway funding. They didn’t follow them. People died. That’s the story.
North Carolina failed 54% of the time. California failed 25% of the time. These are compliance failures that put families in danger. The guy in the pickup truck heading home to his kids after work doesn’t care about the political implications. He just wants to know that the driver in the next lane actually passed a legitimate skills test and can read a road sign.
Secretary Duffy has outlined clear corrective actions for North Carolina: immediately pause issuance, identify all noncompliant licenses, revoke and reissue where appropriate, and conduct a comprehensive internal audit to find out how the system broke down. It’s the same playbook being applied across the country, and it’s the right approach.
Governor Josh Stein and North Carolina Department of Public Safety Commissioner Paul Tine have 30 days to demonstrate compliance or watch $50 million in federal funding evaporate. Given the political pressure and the national spotlight, expect them to move quickly.
The larger lesson here is one the industry has been learning the hard way for years: compliance isn’t optional. It’s not a cost center to minimize or a box to check. It’s the foundation of everything we do. When states cut corners on CDL issuance, when carriers skip driver qualification steps, and when everyone assumes someone else is handling it, people get hurt.
The non-domiciled CDL program was designed with good intentions. It gave qualified drivers from other countries a pathway to work legally in American trucking while ensuring they met our standards. That’s not a bad thing. What’s bad is when states treat the verification requirements as optional and then act surprised when FMCSA shows up with audit findings.
North Carolina is the latest state to learn that lesson. It won’t be the last.
