California yanks illegal immigrants’ trucker’s licenses; Newsom says migrant status not a factor

California has moved to cancel licenses of 17,000 commercial drivers after a back-and-forth with the Trump administration, which is pushing to get what it calls ”dangerous foreign drivers” off U.S. roads.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the cancellations last week, saying California had finally bowed to pressure to kick people the feds say are illegal immigrants off the roads.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office acknowledged the revocations but rejected the claim that they were illegal immigrants. It said they were booted because of “inconsistency” with state law.

“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,” Mr. Duffy said.

Mr. Newsom’s office, for its part, mocked Mr. Duffy for his role on MTV’s reality TV show “Road Rules” in the 1990s and said he was “spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his ‘dear leader.’”

As that back-and-forth was playing out, however, a federal appeals court put a hold on Mr. Duffy’s new regulation aimed at stripping illegal immigrants and other “non-domiciled” foreign drivers off the road.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in a 2-1 ruling, said Mr. Duffy cut too many corners in issuing the rule — and said the foreign drivers at issue are actually safer than other commercial drivers.

They also said the migrants themselves, as well as the economy, have come to rely on the migrant drivers and taking them off the road “would have public safety by forcing it to replace safer experienced drivers with less-safe new drivers.”

U.S. Circuit Judge Karen Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee, dissented, saying she thought the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration made a good showing of the need for the rule, which she said should have been good enough at this point in the litigation.

The rule at issue limited states’ ability to issue commercial driver’s licenses to people whose addresses were foreign domiciles but who live in the U.S.

The government said those drivers fell into a loophole.

Because much of their driving history exists in their home countries, states struggle to make determinations on whether they should be granted licenses.

Judge Henderson said that made sense, and it was an error for the court to substitute its judgment for the government.

“It should go without saying that our nation’s roadways are safer the fewer people there are operating eighteen-wheelers, buses and delivery trucks with unchecked driving histories,” she wrote.

She said the government also provided examples of five recent fatal crashes — which claimed 12 lives — involving foreign-domiciled commercial drivers. She said an audit of their foreign records might have denied them permits.

It’s not clear what effect the court ruling will have on the 17,000 revoked licenses in California. Neither that state’s motor vehicle bureau nor the U.S. Transportation Department responded to inquiries for this story.

Mr. Duffy said the 17,000 were “just the tip of the 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,” he said.

Mr. Newsom’s press office denied the label “illegal immigrant,” saying they had “legal presence” and had been issued work permits by Homeland Security.

Work permits can, in fact, be issued to migrants who are here without a legal visa.

As one example, the Biden administration granted millions of illegal border crossers “parole,” giving them the tentative legal presence Mr. Newsom’s office cited. But they are still inadmissible aliens, or what would usually be considered illegal immigrants.

Mr. Duffy also said that California issued driver’s licenses that are valid for years after their work permits expire.

“Blatantly lying to the American people won’t help Newsom’s keyboard warriors get their next jobs,” the secretary said.

He said California was a major reason he issued the non-domiciled driver rule.

The Transportation Department said Wednesday that it will continue to urge California to revoke all illegal non-domiciled CDLs or risk losing $160 million in federal funds.