Politics
California Folds To Trump, Revokes Trucking Licenses From 17,000 Illegal Immigrants
California will be revoking commercial driver’s licenses given to roughly 17,000 foreign nationals — many of whom are illegal aliens — after the Trump Administration raised concerns following multiple fatal accidents involving semi trucks being driven by illegal aliens. Governor Gavin Newsom attempted to save face by claiming that the revocations are due to violations of state law, however.
Newsom’s office said the unspecified violations were of state laws that were in place before the Trump Administration ordered a nationwide audit of commercial driver’s licenses, which was ordered following a fatal crash in Florida back in August.
Harjinder Singh, 28, faces three charges of vehicular homicide and faces up to 45 years in prison after he allegedly performed an illegal u-turn on the Florida Turnpike earlier this month. Footage from the cab of Singh’s tractor trailer shows him swinging the massive vehicle around, causing a catastrophic accident behind him.
Singh illegally entered the country by way of India six years ago and was able to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License in California.
In response, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that all employment visas for truck drivers would be immediately halted. “Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Rubio posted on X. “The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy further announced that billions of dollars in federal funds would be withheld from the state over failure to comply with English proficiency requirements for commercial driver’s licenses.
“California is the only state in the nation that refuses to ensure big rig drivers can read our road signs and communicate with law enforcement. This is a fundamental safety issue that impacts you and your family on America’s roads,” the secretary announced in a social media post. “The Golden State thinks it’s OK to ignore @USDOT English language requirements for truckers. You can play all the games you want, but not at the expense of American lives,” he added.
Duffy further noted that Singh never should have been able to receive a commercial license in the first place due to his status as an illegal alien.
After initially sidestepping the issue, Newsom’s office announced Wednesday that action will be taken, though the vehement Trump critic attempted to claim it has nothing to do with the administration’s directives.
Duffy said Wednesday that California’s action to revoke these licenses is an admission that the state had acted improperly even though the state had previously defended its licensing standards. ″After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” he said. ”This is just the tip of 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.”
Newsom shot back by claiming that every one of the drivers whose licenses were being revoked had valid work authorizations from the federal government. “Once again, the Sean ‘Road Rules’ Duffy fails to share the truth — spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader,” a spokesperson for the governor’s office said.
In September, Duffy instituted new regulations that make obtaining a commercial driver’s license for immigrants extremely difficult by shrinking the pool of eligible visa classifications to just three. Under the new rules, only 10,000 of the 200,000 noncitizens who have commercial licenses would qualify for them, which would only be available to drivers who have an H-2a, H-2b or E-2 visa. H-2a is for temporary agricultural workers.
