California plans to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses issued to immigrants after discovering the licenses’ expiration dates extended past the drivers’ authorized period of stay in the U.S., state officials said Wednesday.
The move follows criticism from the Trump administration about states granting licenses to people in the country illegally. The issue drew national attention in August when a tractor-trailer driver not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that California’s revocations amount to an admission the state acted improperly, noting California had previously defended its licensing practices. California began reviewing commercial driver’s licenses it issued after Duffy raised concerns.
“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” Duffy said, referring to the governor. “This is just the tip of iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said each driver whose license is being revoked had valid federal work authorization. Initially, the office only said the licenses violated state law; it later specified the relevant law requires a license to expire on or before the date a person’s legal status to be in the United States ends, as reported to the DMV.
Newsom spokesperson Brandon Richards rebutted Duffy’s statement: “Once again, the Sean ‘Road Rules’ Duffy fails to share the truth — spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader,” Richards said.
Recent fatal truck crashes in Texas, Alabama and a fiery California crash that killed three people last month — involving a driver in the country illegally — have intensified scrutiny of these licenses.
Duffy previously imposed new federal restrictions on which immigrants can qualify for commercial driver’s licenses and said earlier this fall that California and five other states had improperly issued such licenses to noncitizens. California is the only state Duffy has taken action against so far because it was the first where an audit was completed; reviews in the other states have been delayed by a government shutdown. The Transportation Department is urging those states to tighten standards.
Duffy revoked $40 million in federal highway funding, saying California wasn’t enforcing English-language requirements for truckers, and warned he would withhold another $160 million unless the state invalidates the improperly issued licenses and addresses other concerns. The state’s revocations are part of efforts to comply.
The new federal rules announced in September make obtaining commercial driver’s licenses much harder for immigrants: only holders of H-2A, H-2B or E-2 visas will be eligible, states must verify immigration status in a federal database, and licenses issued to eligible noncitizens would be valid for up to one year or until the visa expires. H-2A covers temporary agricultural workers, H-2B covers temporary nonagricultural workers, and E-2 covers investors. Under those rules, only about 10,000 of the roughly 200,000 noncitizen commercial license holders would qualify; the rules are not retroactive, so the remaining drivers may keep their licenses until renewal.
The 17,000 California drivers being revoked received notices that their licenses will expire in 60 days. Duffy said in September that investigators found one quarter of 145 California licenses reviewed should not have been issued, citing four cases where licenses remained valid years after a driver’s work permit had expired.
Newsom’s office said the state followed guidance it received from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security when issuing licenses to noncitizens.
