FMCSA found licensing violations in 60 of 123 sampled non-domiciled CDL files. Texas revoked 6,407 credentials, fixed its process, and resumed partial issuance. It hasn’t cleared the federal list.

On October 23, 2025, FMCSA Deputy Administrator Jesse Elison sent a noncompliance letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Department of Public Safety Director Freeman Martin. Auditors had pulled 123 non-domiciled CDL files covering transactions from June 2024 through August 2025. Sixty of them failed. That’s 49% of a sample drawn from roughly 9,600 active non-domiciled CDLs and commercial learner’s permits that DPS had issued statewide. That number is not a statewide failure rate. It’s what federal auditors found when they looked at a slice of the file drawer. The distinction matters, and the FMCSA letter makes it. The letter also makes clear that the failure mode was nearly uniform: DPS used a manual process that left standard five- or eight-year expiration dates on credentials that federal rules required to expire no later than the holder’s employment authorization. The license outlived the legal permission to work. That’s the violation, and it appeared in 56 of the 60 files.

A non-domiciled CDL is a commercial license issued to a driver whose permanent legal home is outside the state, and in this context, outside the United States, under 49 CFR Parts 383 and 384. Eligibility depends on documented lawful U.S. presence, and federal rules require the credential to expire when that authorization ends. Texas was issuing them as if they were standard licenses, with standard expiration windows, because the manual step that should have shortened the validity period wasn’t happening reliably. The other four files in the violation count had different problems: DPS processed three while employment-authorization checks were still pending, and used an unacceptable document for a fourth. The October letter does not establish that any of those four applicants lacked lawful immigration status. It establishes that DPS didn’t have the paperwork in order before it issued the credential.

The Elison letter ordered eight corrective actions, including a review of every unexpired credential in the non-domiciled portfolio, fixes to the system and training failures that produced the errors, identification of every misclassified license, and voiding or rescission of credentials still out of compliance. It also put a number on the consequence of inaction: Texas risked losing $182.5 million in its fiscal year 2027 share of National Highway Performance Program and Surface Transportation Block Grant funding, according to Transportation Topics. DPS corrected or reissued nine of the sampled credentials. It shortened a tenth, but the new expiration date still ran past the driver’s employment authorization, according to the Dallas Express report on the federal letter. Public records through September 12 don’t show final resolution on that file or the other 50 outstanding from the sample.

The broader response moved fast by state government standards. DPS halted all non-domiciled CDL transactions on September 29, 2025, the same day FMCSA published its interim final rule at 90 Fed. Reg. 46,509. Texas started mailing revocation notices on December 8, 2025, according to DPS’s status page. By May 11, 2026, the state had revoked 6,407 commercial-driving privileges statewide, according to the Texas Tribune. As of that date, more than 3,300 expired credentials remained subject to review if their holders sought renewal. Public records through September 12 don’t link those statewide revocation totals back to the 123-file sample specifically.

Texas resumed partial issuance on June 1, 2026, with FMCSA approval, under the federal final rule published February 13, 2026, at 91 FR 7044, effective March 16, 2026, Docket No. FMCSA-2025-0622. The final rule, which reaffirmed the IFR’s framework after the IFR itself was stayed by the D.C. Circuit on November 13, 2025, in Lujan et al. v. FMCSA, No. 25-1215, narrows non-domiciled CDL eligibility to three visa categories: H-2A temporary agricultural workers, H-2B temporary non-agricultural workers, and E-2 treaty investors. Texas received FMCSA approval only for H-2A issuances as of June 1. H-2B and E-2 remain pending FMCSA authorization, according to the Texas DPS status page. New transactions are receiving next-business-day review, DPS told lawmakers at an August 25, 2026 hearing. Despite all of that, Texas remained on FMCSA’s public list of states with preliminary substantial-noncompliance findings as of September 12, 2026, according to the agency’s online record.

The October letter also raised a separate 2021 DPS error that the auditors connected to a fatal crash. This transaction falls outside the 123-file sample and outside the June 2024 through August 2025 review window. Solomun Weldekeal-Araya received a standard Texas CDL valid through January 2030, though his application supported only a non-domiciled license through October 2022, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report. DPS personnel, according to the FMCSA letter, determined that Weldekeal-Araya’s indefinite employment authorization tied to refugee status entitled him to a regular CDL rather than a non-domiciled one. FMCSA’s letter characterized that determination as an error. On March 13, 2025, Weldekeal-Araya drove the tractor-trailer in an Interstate 35 crash in Austin that killed five people. His medical certificate had expired February 23, 2025. Three of five roadside inspections since 2023 had placed him out of service for false duty status or logbook violations, according to the Dallas Express. A Travis County grand jury indicted Weldekeal-Araya on 22 second-degree felony counts, including five manslaughter counts, according to the district attorney’s office. Those charges are allegations. He’s presumed innocent unless and until proved guilty. No federal or state record reviewed by the Dallas Express ties any of the 123 sampled drivers to a serious crash or enforcement action. The FMCSA crash report on the March 2025 incident does not establish that the licensing classification error caused the crash.

The state comparison numbers in the letter are worth knowing and worth reading carefully. FMCSA found violations in 107 of 200 sampled New York files (53.5%) and 38 of 145 sampled California files (26.2%), according to the Dallas Express. FMCSA used different review periods and different selection methods for each state, so those figures don’t support ranking Texas against New York or California on overall compliance. They show that the manual-process failure that produced wrong expiration dates wasn’t a Texas-only problem. California had already canceled roughly 17,000 non-domiciled commercial licenses because of its own audit findings, according to WFAA’s reporting. The federal review identified what FMCSA called systemic non-compliance with its regulations governing non-domiciled CDL issuance across multiple states, according to the February 2026 final rule’s preamble.

For fleets operating in Texas, the practical question isn’t whether the process broke; it’s whether the drivers you’re currently running on non-domiciled Texas credentials are on the right side of the corrective action. Check the DPS status page against the credentials you’re holding. If a driver holds a Texas non-domiciled CDL issued before September 29, 2025, in a category other than H-2A, H-2B, or E-2, that credential is under review or may already be revoked. Texas hasn’t cleared FMCSA’s noncompliance list, and the final rule’s requirements under 49 CFR Parts 383 and 384 remain in effect. Credentials issued in error or maintained past a loss of lawful status remain subject to downgrade under federal rules, according to FMCSA’s 2026 final rule FAQ. That’s the standard. The corrective action is ongoing. The list hasn’t moved.