WASHINGTON — The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has filed a new lawsuit against the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) after the agency denied a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request seeking basic aggregate statistics and policies concerning its commercial driver’s license (CDL) program.
The case challenges the DMV’s June 29 decision upholding a blanket denial of all requested records.
“The New York DMV has now spent more than a year inventing new reasons to hide basic information about how it licenses the drivers of tractor-trailers and buses,” said Dale Wilcox, FAIR’s executive director and general counsel. “First they delayed. Then they demanded payment. Then they claimed that we are functionally an immigration enforcement agency and that ordinary licensing statistics are secret law-enforcement materials. New Yorkers and the rest of the country have a right to know whether the DMV is complying with federal safety standards. Stonewalling does not make the roads safer.”
FAIR’s Request
FAIR’s Oct. 15, 2025 FOIL request sought the following information:
- The frequency and pass/fail rates of CDL knowledge tests administered in languages other than English.
- The number of non-domiciled CDLs issued to U.S. citizens versus aliens.
- Skills-test outcomes for applicants who took knowledge tests in languages other than English.
- The number of non-domiciled CDLs and commercial learner’s permits issued to applicants identified as “no name given.”
- The DMV’s policies for handling incomplete applications (for example, those lacking a name or supported by expired proof of lawful presence or work authorization).
New York DMV Response
According to FAIR, after months of unexplained delays, the DMV invoiced FAIR more than $2,000 to process four of the five items, accepted payment and then reversed course. On May 8 it issued a blanket denial of the entire request.
On appeal, the DMV affirmed the denial on two grounds:
- That a state statute prohibiting disclosure of DMV records to federal immigration-enforcement agencies should be extended to FAIR because the organization is “ideologically aligned” with those agencies—even though the DMV acknowledged FAIR is a private nonprofit with no enforcement authority.
- That routine administrative licensing statistics and internal policies are exempt as law-enforcement records, without identifying any investigation or explaining how disclosure would interfere with one.
FAIR’s Lawsuit
According to FAIR, the lawsuit follows FAIR’s August 2026 investigative report, License to Kill: Uncovering the Anti-Borders Takeover of the National CDL Program, which documented more than 30 deaths in 2025 from crashes involving foreign national CDL holders and detailed widespread state noncompliance with federal standards. The report said New York’s issuance of more than 32,000 non-domiciled CDLs and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s finding that a majority of sampled New York credentials failed to comply with federal rules—leading to the withholding of tens of millions of dollars in federal highway funds. This action also follows FAIR’s earlier lawsuit against the DMV, which was resolved by a June 2026 settlement that expressly preserved FAIR’s right to challenge any subsequent denial of the underlying FOIL request.
“New York’s response has been a master class in evasion,” said Mateo Forero, FAIR’s director of investigations. “Other states produced the same categories of records. New York delayed for months, took our payment, and then told us that routine testing and issuance statistics are somehow law-enforcement secrets and that our nonprofit should be treated like a federal immigration agency. We will continue to fight for the transparency the public is entitled to under FOIL, and we will keep pressing for accountability on a licensing system that has already cost American lives.”
The case is FAIR v. New York State DMV, Index No. 912789-26 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., Albany County).
To read the petition click here.
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe.
