# U.S. wrongly withheld New York highway funds over immigrant licenses, appeals court rules

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/u-s-wrongly-withheld-new-york-highway-funds-over-immigrant-licenses-appeals-court-rules/
- Published: 2026-11-13T22:55:42+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-13T23:25:53+00:00
- Original publisher: PBS NewsHour (publisher lean: Centre)
- Original article: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-wrongly-withheld-new-york-highway-funds-over-immigrant-licenses-appeals-court-rules
- Topics: Politics

## Key points

- Appeals court says withholding New York’s highway funds was unlawful.
- The disputed funding totalled nearly $74 million.
- The case concerns rules for immigrant commercial driving licences.

## Summary

A federal appeals court ruled that the US Transportation Department acted unlawfully when it withheld nearly $74 million in highway funding from New York over the state’s handling of commercial driving licences issued to immigrants. The ruling matters because it found that, at the time, federal rules did not require New York to cancel licences when a driver lost legal status in the United States.

The dispute followed an audit that identified nearly 33,000 licences the federal government considered questionable. New York had issued some licences for eight years regardless of how long the holder’s visa remained valid. The federal government said its actions were intended to protect road safety; it also reported that about 26,000 drivers had been removed from the road for failing English proficiency requirements and 30,000 licences had been cancelled as illegally issued.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.