By Aaron Cooper, CNN

(CNN) — The Department of Transportation is imposing new limits to “drastically restrict” people from outside the United States from getting commercial driver’s licenses, and is threatening to withhold highway funds from states that don’t agree to comply.

“The process for issuing these licenses is absolutely, 100%, broken,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday in a news conference. “It has become a threat to public safety and it requires action right now.”

So called “non-domiciled” commercial licenses allow people who are not US citizens or permanent residents to get a license to drive vehicles, including large transport trucks. They do not apply to Mexican or Canadian citizens, who are permitted under a different process.

Friday, Duffy announced a new “emergency rule” which goes into effect immediately, forcing states to “pause” issuing the non-domiciled licenses until they can comply with the new restrictions.

Prospective drivers must now meet stricter rules including providing an unexpired foreign passport and specific visas allowing the driver to work in the United States. Licenses must expire within one year, or the same date as the work authorization, whichever comes first. People not in the country legally cannot be issued licenses.

“Current federal regulations are allowing dangerous, unqualified drivers on American roadways,” Duffy said. “This means that, even when the rules are being followed, dangerous individuals who shouldn’t be near a big rig are getting behind the wheel and causing crashes on our roadways.”

The rule does not revoke anyone’s license who already has a CDL, however Duffy said they are looking at ways to make it retroactive.

“States are failing to follow even the most basic procedures,” Duffy said. “Thousands of licenses that should never have been issued actually were issued.”

He cited several recent crashes involving non-domiciled truck drivers, including one in Texas in March where a truck driver failed to stop at a traffic slowdown, causing a chain-reaction crash that killed five people. This week the driver was indicted for 22 counts, including manslaughter.

In August on the Florida Turnpike a truck driver making an illegal U-turn was hit by a minivan, killing the three people inside. The Trump administration said the truck driver was in the US illegally and was issued a work permit and driver’s license by the state of California. He was charged with three counts of vehicular manslaughter.

California is one of 19 states, in addition to the District of Columbia, that issues licenses regardless of immigration status, which Duffy called “deeply disturbing.”

The Department of Transportation announced additional enforcement action against the state of California for what it says is the state continuing to issue licenses illegally under the current federal standards.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration investigators found a quarter of all non-domiciled CDLs they reviewed in the state from June were not issued in accordance with current federal rules.

Duffy cited one example where California gave a driver from Brazil a license to drive a school bus for months after his legal presence in the country expired. In two other examples he said drivers who should not have been eligible for a license were given ones that extended for years after their work authorization expired.

“It shows a reckless disregard for safety in California, and they should be ashamed of themselves,” Duffy said. “If California doesn’t comply, we’re going to withhold federal highway funds.”

The DOT says California has 30 days to fix these problems, including immediately pausing issuing non-domiciled CDLs, auditing the licenses and reissuing CDLs which were not issued in accordance of the law.

If the state does not comply the federal government will withhold $160 million in highway funds, doubling the total if it continues into a second year.

The state will respond to the letter in due course, a spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNN, but noted the state’s accident records.

“California commercial driver’s license holders had a fatal crash rate nearly 40% LOWER than the national average,” the governor’s Deputy Director of Communications Diana Crofts-Pelayo said. “Texas — the only state with more commercial holders — has a rate almost 50% higher than California.”

Earlier this week the California State Transportation Agency responded to the DOT, which proposed sanctions in August for the state not properly requiring CDL drivers to speak English.

“California’s laws, regulations, standards, and orders are either identical to or have the same effect as the federal safety requirements,” Alicia Fowler, the agency’s general counsel, wrote. “California has complied and will continue to comply with applicable federal laws and regulations.”

Duffy said the actions taken Friday against California should serve as a warning to any other state that is not following the law.

“Our team identified non-domiciled CDLs that were issued improperly in Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and in Washington. Those states should know that enforcement actions against them are forthcoming,” he said. “My message, it’s very simple, get into compliance now, or we’ll pull funding and we’ll force you into compliance.”

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