“It would have a devastating impact, not only on the individuals like you mentioned but their livelihoods because having a commercial license is a requirement of their jobs, but also it would impact their families, the communities that they serve, as well as the larger state and if not the country, because they’re providing essential services,” Asian Law Caucus attorney Katherine Zhao said in a Wednesday hearing.
An Alameda County Court will allow more than 20,000 immigrant semi-truck drivers to keep their commercial licenses, despite both the Trump administration and the State of California’s attempts to revoke them.
According to CBS News, the decision presents an unusual challenge for California.
The U.S. Department of Motor Vehicles, a federal agency, has repeatedly asked the California D.M.V. to revoke commercial drivers’ licenses issued to immigrants, many of whom are legally authorized to work in the United States. The affected immigrants include asylum-seekers and refugees, who aren’t necessarily prohibited from working but whose legal status is often both tenuous and temporary.
The federal government, for its part, claims that an investigation determined that many of the licenses issued to immigrants contained “clerical errors” involving the expiry dates. The U.S. Department of Motor Vehicle encouraged California to take action. In response, the state’s D.M.V. sent letters to 20,000 immigrant truck-drivers, informing them that their commercial licenses would expire in the next 60 days.
A law firm and several advocacy groups—including the Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition—sued on behalf of several drivers, arguing that California didn’t follow its own procedures for the revocations. California has since extended the expiration dates to March 6.
The Trump administration responded to this modest concession by promising to withhold nearly $200 million in federal infrastructure funds from California.
“It would have a devastating impact, not only on the individuals like you mentioned but their livelihoods because having a commercial license is a requirement of their jobs, but also it would impact their families, the communities that they serve, as well as the larger state and if not the country, because they’re providing essential services,” Asian Law Caucus attorney Katherine Zhao said in a Wednesday hearing.
The tentative restoration of the licenses was met with worry from state officials, who fear that the Trump administration could take further retaliatory action. The administration has, for instance, already suggested rescinding California’s ability to issue commercial driver’s licenses altogether.
By forcing the California Department of Motor Vehicles to continue honoring the revoked licenses, an attorney for the state said, tens of thousands more could be hurt.
“DMV is not insulated from any retaliatory action,” state Department of Justice attorney Barbarba Horne-Petersdorf said.
Other state officials have pushed back against the Trump administration’s demands, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta noting that the state has long since fixed the clerical issues the federal Department of Motor Vehicles found problematic.
Bonta also pointed out that, even as the state has strived to comply with the federal government’s dictate, reaching a mutually satisfactory conclusion has been difficult—in part because the administration’s overriding interest appears to be keep commercial licenses out of the hands of immigrants.
“[The Trump administration’s] actions make sense only as a manifestation of hostility to immigrant drivers and a desire to force them from the commercial market,” Bonta wrote in a legal filing.
Sources
California judge tentatively allows 20,000 immigrant truck drivers to keep their licenses
California pulled immigrants’ trucking licenses. Now it can’t give them back
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