Colorado's trucking industry among those now under the microscope of federal transportation leaders

Colorado is auditing nearly 2,000 commercial driver's license holders who have non-domicile licenses, which are issued to people without permanent U.S. citizenship.

Colorado is now among the states under a microscope from the U.S. Department of Transportation, after several high-profile crashes involving drivers who couldn't understand road signs written in English.

"We had a series of different crashes across the country that involved what we call non-domicile CDL drivers. Some of them didn't even have a CDL," said Greg Fulton, president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association.

Fulton said that includes crashes in Colorado, such as a 2024 crash on Highway 285. Ignacio Cruz Mendoza lost control of a semitruck he was driving without a valid U.S. CDL, killing Scott Miller. Miller's wife, Deanne, has been pushing for more attention on the industry ever since.

"He always used to tell my daughter, 'watch out for trucks. You never know who's behind the wheel.' And guess what happens to him? He gets taken out by a truck driver," she said in August.

Those high-profile crashes led to increased focus on enforcing an English-proficiency requirement to ensure drivers can understand road signs, as well as a review of how states issue non-domicile CDLs.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said it found "systemic noncompliance" across several states, including Colorado.

"What they found was that there was a disconnect occurring. Part of the disconnect was that these individuals would go and get a CDL, and the visa would expire, but they would end up having a CDL that went well beyond this," Fulton said.

USDOT issued an emergency rule tightening requirements for who qualifies for non-domicile licenses and increasing oversight.

In response, Colorado's Department of Motor Vehicles paused its program and is now auditing more than 1,700 non-domicile licenses issued in the state. A spokesperson said, "The Colorado DMV takes seriously our responsibility to ensure all commercial drivers on our roads are licensed lawfully and safely."

A spokesperson says it will take at least 30 days to complete that review. 

Fulton said non-domicile license holders represent only a small fraction of the more than one hundred thousand CDL drivers in Colorado, "I think here they are trying to get an assessment of what they have," he said.

The emergency rule that tightened those requirements is now being challenged in court, pausing its implementation.

USDOT has also removed several CDL training schools from its approved registry for issues including falsifying or manipulating training data and failing to meet curriculum standards, facility conditions or instructor qualifications.

It is unclear whether any of those schools are in Colorado.