North Carolina could lose nearly $50 million in federal funding if the state doesn’t revoke commercial driver’s licenses from immigrants who aren’t qualified to hold them after an audit uncovered problems, the U.S. Transportation Department said Thursday.

North Carolina is the ninth state to be targeted since Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy [launched the nationwide review](https://apnews.com/article/commercial-drivers-license-immigrants-trucking-crash-duffy-c4023a6beac854a5af31d5a8c98040f2) last year to make sure only qualified drivers hold licenses to drive semitrailer trucks or buses.

The issue started to generate headlines after a truck driver who was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida [that killed three people](https://apnews.com/article/fatal-uturn-florida-california-immigration-b2db54aef36c178e2d0bb299f907603d) in August.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reviewed 50 commercial driver’s licenses that North Carolina had issued to immigrants in its audit and found problems with more than half of them. That’s what prompted the threat to withhold funding if the state doesn’t clean up its licensing program. Records show that 924 of these kind of licenses remain unexpired in North Carolina.

“North Carolina’s failure to follow the rules isn’t just shameful — it’s dangerous,” Duffy said.

North Carolina officials didn’t immediately respond to the notice from federal officials. A state DMV official said a statement would be forthcoming later Thursday.

North Carolina may lose $50M in federal funds over flawed immigrant trucker licenses - Breitbart