Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy criticized on Monday a recent court ruling that placed a stay on federal guidelines that would have put more restrictions on noncitizens obtaining commercial driver’s licenses.
“We’re working on the legal strategy right now, but we’re not going to take this lying down,” Duffy said during an interview on The Ingraham Angle after a Washington, D.C., court temporarily blocked the expanded regulations last week.
“We are going to do all we can to protect the American people,” he said.
If noncitizens fulfill state eligibility requirements or qualify for certain visa programs, they can use work permits and other pathways to obtain CDLs in the United States to drive semitrucks, buses, and other large vehicles.
Duffy has expressed concern that some states, particularly California, are abusing the process by permitting migrants to keep CDLs after their work permits expire, and, in some high-profile cases, allowing illegal immigrants who lack English proficiency to man large rigs.
This week, Duffy accused the Biden administration of muddying the waters through instituting relaxed immigration policies.
“Biden let in you know 10, 15 million illegals in the country, gave them work permits, work authorization, and these folks went out and they got commercial driver’s licenses, and they’re on the road,” Duffy said.
In September, the Transportation Department issued an emergency interim final rule on CDLs that would expand government control over the application process and allow immigrants who hold only three specific classes of visas to be eligible to get the license. The rule was in response to “a recent series of horrific, fatal crashes caused by nondomiciled drivers,” Duffy said, pointing to a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration audit that found “at least five fatal crashes occurring since January involved non-domiciled CDL holders.”
In response, a district court last Thursday issued an administrative stay pending further legal review of the rule, expressing concern that the Transportation Department overstated the “danger” that foreign drivers pose to safety on the roads.
The federal government did not follow proper procedure in drafting the rule and failed to “articulate a satisfactory explanation for how the rule would promote safety,” according to the court.
The court said the FMCSA’s data shows that immigrants account for roughly 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses but only about 0.2% of all fatal crashes.
Duffy’s rule would require states to verify CDL applicants’ immigration status in a federal database. Only drivers holding H-2A, H-2B, or E-2 visas would be eligible for CDLs, meaning 10,000 of the 200,000 noncitizens who hold CDLs would qualify.
However, the rule would not be enforced retroactively, so the 190,000 drivers would be allowed to keep their CDLs until they come up for renewal.
The Transportation Department has particularly targeted California in the CDL debate, threatening to pull millions in federal funding from the state over the matter.
Last week, Duffy said California agreed to revoke 17,000 licenses issued illegally in the state.
“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed,” Duffy said in a statement. “This is 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.”
The Trump administration dismissed data showing many voters believe foreign workers fill jobs that U.S. citizens aren’t seeking.
“These are great American-paying jobs, great American companies,” Duffy said. “They’re not going to American drivers. The rates are coming down for truckers. You can’t sustain yourself. You can’t make a living as an American truck driver because Joe Biden let a flood of these foreigners come into the country and now compete against the American worker.”
