Thousands of immigrants in California won\u2019t be able to renew or receive nondomiciled commercial driver\u2019s licenses amid new federal guidelines that went into effect Monday.<\/p>\n
Federal regulators said the new rules will impact nearly 200,000 drivers nationwide and limit licenses to certain visa holders. Moving forward, states will be required to verify an applicant\u2019s immigration status through a federal portal and no longer accept work permits as proof of eligibility.<\/p>\n
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy has said that the goal of the new rules is to improve safety on America\u2019s roadways.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving forward, unqualified foreign drivers will be unable to get a license to operate an 80,000-pound big rig,\u201d he has previously said in a statement. \u201cUnder President Trump\u2019s leadership, we are putting the safety of the driving public first. \u201d<\/p>\n
The changes come more than a week after federal regulators ordered California\u2019s Department of Motor Vehicles to cancel about 13,000 such licenses due to a clerical error.<\/p>\n
Federal regulators said the licenses were illegally issued because they remained valid past a work permit\u2019s expiration date. State officials tried to correct the mistake but were not allowed to do so by federal regulators.<\/a> <\/p>\n Immigrant rights groups said the new federal guidelines create severe economic hardship for immigrant commercial drivers in California, who are lawfully qualified to work but cannot obtain licenses, exacerbating a truck driver shortage<\/a>. They said the new rules also inflame anti-immigrant bias by perpetuating the myth that all immigrant drivers are unqualified or dangerous. <\/p>\n \u201cThis federal administration is using their war on immigration to remove qualified, hardworking commercial drivers from our workforce who meet language and safety rules,\u201d said DMV Director Steve Gordon. \u201cThere are no guarantees that additional solutions will become available to help these drivers and their employers.\u201d<\/p>\n At least 46 states operate nondomiciled driver\u2019s license programs, which allows immigrants who are authorized to work in the country to drive commercial vehicles. Such permitted drivers include visa holders, refugees, asylees and DACA recipients. <\/p>\n The new guidelines would limit the licenses to temporary agricultural workers with H-2A visas, temporary nonagricultural workers with H-2B visas and investors with E-2 visas.<\/p>\n California\u2019s DMV, labor unions and advocacy groups have sued the federal government over the new regulations. The courts have yet to hear the cases.<\/p>\n Implementation of the new rules will cost American taxpayers about $3.2 million the first year, then about a million dollars annually thereafter to realign the rules with the new federal standards, according to estimates from federal regulators<\/a>.<\/p>\n California\u2019s nondomiciled licensing program came under scrutiny last year following two fatal accidents in Florida<\/a> and San Bernardino County<\/a> that involved two truck drivers living in the country illegally. Both drivers had obtained their licenses in California.<\/p>\n The deadly accidents brought negative attention to Punjabi and Sikh truck drivers. At least one of the drivers was a Sikh. Across the U.S. there are about 150,000 Sikh truck drivers, according to the Sikh Coalition, a nonprofit group. <\/p>\n The accidents occurred as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, was conducting a nationwide audit of the nondomiciled licensing programs. The FMCSA operates under the Department of Transportation and regulates and provides safety oversight of commercial vehicles.<\/p>\n In September, auditors found<\/a> that California was not in compliance with federal rules and later ordered the state to revoke more than 17,000 licenses<\/a> due to the mismatched expiration dates. It also told the state to stop issuing the licenses. Since then, DMV officials said the immigration status of some drivers changed, reducing the number to 13,000. <\/p>\n California was set to revoke the licenses by Jan. 5 but extended the deadline to March 6 amid the threat of a civil class-action lawsuit<\/a> by the Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition.<\/p>\n