California’s government could cancel 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses issued to immigrants after the Trump administration expressed concerns over licenses granted to individuals in the country without proper immigration documentation.
Despite the measure, Governor Gavin Newsom clarified that the cancellation of commercial driver’s licenses is not for immigration reasons but due to violations of state law, without providing further details.
In a statement, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) admitted to illegally issuing 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) to drivers who did not reside in the state.
“After weeks of denying any wrongdoing, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed.
Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued truck driver licenses are being revoked,” Duffy said in the Department of Transportation (DOT) statement.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue pressing California to prove it has removed all undocumented immigrants from trucks and school buses,” the federal official added.
According to DOT, the 17,000 holders of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses were notified that their documents no longer meet federal requirements and will expire in 60 days.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is requiring California to provide a full audit of all non-domiciled CDLs to verify that all non-compliant documents have been revoked and that all irregularities have been corrected.
In response, Governor Newsom’s office stated that the unspecified violations corresponded to state laws that were not in effect before the Trump administration tightened regulations following a national audit prompted by an immigrant driver involved in a fatal crash in Florida.
A serious accident last month in California involving an undocumented truck driver, in which three people died, has heightened concerns over commercial driver’s licenses.
Image: Opinion
