NEW YORK — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday that New York will lose more than $73.5 million in federal funding after the state refused to revoke nearly 33,000 non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses issued to immigrants. The Transportation Department had ordered New York to review all such licenses and revoke illegal ones.

"I promised the American people I would hold any state leader accountable for failing to keep them safe from unvetted, unqualified foreign drivers. I'm delivering on that promise today." Duffy said.

New York issued 32,606 non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses to immigrants. An audit that reviewed 200 of those licenses found more than half had problems, such as remaining valid long after the immigrant was authorized to be in the country.

Duffy placed a spotlight on the issue of non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses after an August crash in Florida that killed three people. The federal government has since reviewed non-domiciled commercial driver's license records in every state, and most states have either complied with or are negotiating with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regarding the reviews.

California has lost $200 million in federal funding over non-domiciled commercial driver's license issues. Pennsylvania, Minnesota and North Carolina have been warned they are at risk of losing some federal funding over the same issues. The Transportation Department had previously withheld or threatened to withhold federal funding from New York since President Trump's return to office.

New rules announced by the Transportation Department will prevent 97% of the affected foreign drivers from obtaining a commercial driver's license again. Non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses issued to immigrants represent about 5% of all commercial driver's licenses nationwide, corresponding to about 200,000 drivers. Immigrants account for about 20% of all truck drivers nationwide.

"These enforcement actions will remove bad actors from the road and restore accountability to the system. Today's action is an important step toward safer highways and a stronger, more professional trucking industry." said Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.