USPS Reverses Ban On 200K Foreign Drivers After System Failure—’Didn’t Realize The Magnitude’

In October 2025, the United States Postal Service discovered a shocking vulnerability when it attempted to ban truck drivers holding non-domiciled commercial licenses. 

Within a mere seventy-two hours, canceled loads, missed deliveries, and cascading system-wide disruptions forced USPS leadership to reverse course entirely, exposing how profoundly dependent America’s mail delivery infrastructure had become on immigrant workers and international drivers.​

The Federal Crackdown: Secretary Duffy’s Emergency Action

On September 25, 2025, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced an emergency interim final rule drastically restricting non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses nationwide. 

The regulation, issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, immediately halted the issuance of new non-domiciled CDLs by states and initiated a comprehensive two-year phase-out of existing licenses nationwide.​

The Hidden Problem

A comprehensive Department of Transportation audit uncovered approximately 200,000 non-domiciled CDLs issued nationwide, revealing startling compliance failures and systemic fraud. 

In California alone, over twenty-five percent of these licenses were granted improperly, with similar regulatory violations discovered in Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington state, raising critical public safety concerns.​

From Convenience to Loophole

Non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses were originally created in 2017 to help United States citizens obtain licenses in states where they didn’t maintain legal residence. 

However, the administrative system expanded significantly over time, eventually allowing non-U.S. residents to qualify with minimal verification of work permits or legal employment status, effectively transforming the program into an unintended immigration workaround.​

Safety Concerns That Triggered Action

Between January and September 2025, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration documented multiple fatal crashes involving non-domiciled CDL drivers operating commercial vehicles. 

Several of these drivers had been issued licenses improperly, while others held valid credentials that would not qualify under the newly revised regulations, providing federal officials with clear justification for the emergency intervention.​

The Verification Failure: States Dropped the Ball

In March 2019, the FMCSA issued official guidance permitting foreign drivers with valid employment permits and Customs and Border Protection arrival records to obtain non-domiciled CDLs throughout the country. 

However, numerous states failed to adequately verify employment authorization or ensure that license expiration dates matched the validity periods of work permits, creating systematic vulnerabilities and enforcement gaps.​

USPS Implements the Ban: Aligning with Federal Policy

Following Transportation Secretary Duffy’s emergency rule, the United States Postal Service implemented its own strict policy prohibiting facilities from loading trailers operated by non-domiciled CDL drivers. 

Management believed that this alignment with federal immigration guidelines would enhance safety and regulatory compliance across the nationwide postal contractor network, preventing future service disruptions.​

System Collapse in Days

The ban’s devastating consequences emerged almost instantly across USPS operations nationwide. Canceled loads proliferated significantly, scheduled trips were missed repeatedly, and mail sorting operations experienced cascading delays throughout the network. 

USPS operations revealed critical vulnerabilities in the linehaul system that leadership had fundamentally underestimated in scope, severity, and operational importance.​

Pete Routsolias Admits the Miscalculation

During an emergency conference call with postal contractors and suppliers, USPS Senior Vice President of Logistics Pete Routsolias directly acknowledged the magnitude of the organizational error in dramatic fashion. 

He stated publicly: “We didn’t understand the magnitude of how many people were using non-domiciled CDLs, and quite honestly, the amount of omits was astronomical.”​

The Shocking Admission

Routsolias continued with candid acknowledgment: “At this moment, I am not prepared to severely impact service.” 

His remarkably direct statement reflected the emerging realization that eliminating non-domiciled drivers entirely wasn’t operationally feasible without catastrophic consequences to mail delivery and postal operations nationwide during the critical holiday shipping season.​

The Swift Reversal

Within merely days of implementation, USPS completely reversed the controversial non-domiciled CDL ban, declaring that potential service disruptions and cost impacts were “too severe for an abrupt change” to operations. 

The organization announced that effective immediately, all postal contractors could resume using drivers holding non-domiciled licenses for their regular operations and linehaul routes.​

Scope of the Workforce

Since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration permitted foreigners to obtain non-domiciled CDLs in March 2019, over two-hundred thousand licenses have been issued nationally across multiple states. 

Many of these drivers fill critical and essential labor gaps in the trucking industry workforce, particularly during the extended freight recession that began in March 2022 and persisted without relief.​

Capacity Crisis

During the same period that non-domiciled CDLs surged dramatically in issuance, the trucking sector added over 310,000 new trucks to national capacity and operations. 

This unprecedented expansion, combined with aggressive foreign driver recruitment strategies by carriers, fundamentally altered market dynamics and directly contributed to the industry’s ongoing freight recession, affecting all segments.​

The Great Freight Recession

The dramatic increase in trucking capacity and truck additions created the longest freight downturn in modern industry history, which began in March 2022 and persisted without meaningful relief or recovery. 

Market oversupply resulting from excessive truck additions and expanded driver recruitment directly triggered this unprecedented economic crisis, affecting profitability throughout the transportation sector.​

Elimination Impact

Federal regulators estimated that approximately 194,000 non-domiciled CDL holders would be systematically removed from the market over the course of two years. 

This represents roughly five percent of the nation’s three-point-eight million active interstate commercial driver’s license holders, potentially devastating overall trucking capacity and creating severe driver shortages.​

English Proficiency Rule

Beyond non-domiciled restrictions, the Trump administration implemented mandatory English proficiency requirements for truckers effective June 2025 nationwide. 

Insurance industry executives estimated that at least ten percent of all active truck drivers could fail English language inspections under the new requirements, further compounding the emerging capacity crisis facing the transportation sector.​

Court Intervention

On November 10, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an administrative stay of the interim final rule, temporarily preventing FMCSA enforcement. 

The court found the emergency rule likely violated statutory requirements and potentially discriminated against legally present non-citizens, including asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA-eligible individuals.​

Duffy Vows to Continue Fighting

Despite the court’s pause on the rule, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declared his unwavering commitment to enforcing restrictions against non-domiciled drivers operating on American roads. 

The administration announced plans to aggressively challenge the stay and pursue the emergency rule through litigation, with oral arguments expected before final resolution in 2026 or later.​

California’s Corrective Action

As the frontline enforcement and compliance target, California must immediately pause all non-domiciled CDL issuance activities, systematically identify all previously issued noncompliant licenses, and revoke those that fail to meet federal standards. 

The state’s corrective action plan remains mandatory regardless of the federal court’s stay on nationwide implementation of the FMCSA rule.​

Infrastructure Dependency 

The USPS crisis demonstrated compellingly how critical national infrastructure relies heavily on immigrant workers and undocumented employment pathways without organizational awareness or contingency planning. 

This incident highlights the complex interdependencies between federal policy decisions, supply chain operations, and workforce demographics that government policymakers may significantly underestimate until operational disruptions force recognition.