A week after immigrant groups filed a lawsuit, California said Tuesday it will delay the revocations of 17,000 commercial driver's licenses until March to allow more time to ensure that truckers and bus drivers who legally qualify for the licenses can keep them. But US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the state may lose $160 million if it doesn't meet a Jan. 5 deadline to revoke the licenses, per the AP. He already withheld $40 million in federal funding after saying the state isn't enforcing English proficiency requirements for truckers. California only sent out notices to invalidate the licenses after Duffy pressured it to make sure immigrants who are in the country illegally aren't granted the licenses.
An audit found problems like licenses that remained valid long after an immigrant's authorization to be in the country expired, or where the state couldn't prove it checked a driver's immigration status. "California does NOT have an 'extension' to keep breaking the law and putting Americans at risk on the roads," Duffy posted on X. The Transportation Department has been prioritizing the issue ever since a truck driver who wasn't authorized to be in the US made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people in August.
California officials said they're working to make sure the federal DOT is satisfied with the reforms they've put in place. The state had planned to resume issuing commercial driver's licenses in mid-December, but the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration blocked that. "Commercial drivers are an important part of our economy—our supply chains don't move, and our communities don't stay connected without them," says state DMV Director Steve Gordon.
The DOT also proposed new restrictions to severely limit which noncitizens could get a license, but a court put the new rules on hold. Munmeeth Kaur of the Sikh Coalition said this delay "is an important step [toward] alleviating the immediate threat that these drivers are facing to their lives and livelihoods." Duffy threatened to withhold millions of dollars in federal funds from California, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota after audits found major problems under the existing rules, like commercial licenses being valid long after an immigrant truck driver's work permit expired. Trucking trade groups have praised the effort to get unqualified drivers who shouldn't have licenses or can't speak English off the road.
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