Rule prevents many immigrant truckers from renewing driver’s license – even if they’ve driven legally for years
Michael Sainato at The Guardian:
Nearly 200,000 US truck drivers are at risk of losing their commercial driver’s licenses after the US Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a new rule that disqualifies many foreign-born truck drivers from getting or renewing their licenses. Tens of thousands of immigrant drivers are stuck in a limbo after the rule took effect in March, and lawsuits challenging the rule are still being reviewed by federal courts. The rule restricts licenses to immigrants who have specific employment authorization statuses, disqualifying those with other authorizations, including asylum seekers, refugees and those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) status. The rule has shaken immigrant drivers who have spent years dedicated to the industry. Sarabjeet Singh, a truck driver from India who has worked in central California for the past 12 years, said he attempted to renew his license last month when it expired but was turned away.
[...]
A spokesperson for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration deferred comment to a press release on the policy. They denied the policy change toward immigrants is racist. In a press release on the new rule, the US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said that licenses are “being issued to dangerous foreign drivers – often times illegally”.
“This is a direct threat to the safety of every family on the road, and I won’t stand for it,” he said. Duffy cited five fatal accidents involving immigrant truck drivers to justify the rule, though these accidents comprised just 0.31% of all large-truck fatal accidents in the US for the first half of 2025. A fifth of truck drivers involved in fatal accidents were driving without a commercial license. In April 2026, a non-domicile truck driver with Daca immigration status confronted Duffy at an event, demanding to know why Daca recipients were being made ineligible to hold commercial drivers licenses. Duffy claimed “well, it shouldn’t” when asked why Daca holders are now prevented from having a license. A spokesperson for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) claimed he misheard the driver and misspoke.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made similar claims that the increasing number of immigrant truck drivers posed a safety threat and was “undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers”, after the state department abruptly announced it would stop issuing work visas for commercial truck drivers last August. Critics of the rule note that the Trump administration has provided no data to substantiate claims that foreign commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders pose a specific safety threat. About 5,200 large trucks were involved in fatal accidents in 2024, a 3% decrease from the previous year, according to the National Safety Council. [...] Immigrant truck drivers say the rule unfairly affects those who are in the country, obtained their commercial licenses legally and have maintained clean driving records. The targeting predates the Trump administration’s new rule. Last April, Arkansas’s governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, signed into law an English proficiency requirement for truck drivers.
The Trump Regime (and red states)’s crusades against immigrant CDL drivers has nothing to do with road safety, but unbridled anti-immigrant animus.
