CA ordered immigrant truck drivers to keep their licenses

from Adam EchelmanCalMatters

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More than 20,000 immigrant truck drivers will be able to keep their licenses in California, at least temporarily, despite efforts by the Trump administration and the state of California to revoke them, according to a preliminary ruling Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court.

The decision puts the state of California in a quandary. The US Department of Transportation has already repeatedly pushed the California Department of Motor Vehicles to revoke those licenseswhich belong to many asylum seekers and other immigrants with temporary legal status after discovering alleged clerical problems regarding the expiration dates of their licenses. The California DMV complied with the transportation department’s demands and sent letters to more than 20,000 drivers last fall telling them their California licenses were expiring in the next 60 days.

But after a law firm and two legal advocacy groups, the Asian Legal Group and the Sikh Coalition,sued on behalf of the truck drivers, saying the state did not follow the proper process for revoking their licenses, the state extended the expiration dates until March 6. The Department of Transportation said in January it would hold off $160 million in federal highway funds from California as a penalty for extending expiration dates.

As immigrant drivers in the courtroom celebrated today’s preliminary ruling, attorneys for the state of California said the judge’s ruling could hurt many more people. The Trump administration has threatened to repeal California possibility of granting commercial licenses in general if the state fails to comply with its orders regarding immigrant truck drivers.

Forcing the DMV to keep those 20,000 licenses intact “would risk the ultimate harm that California is trying to avoid,” said Barbara Horn-Petersdorf, an attorney with the California Department of Justice. “The DMV is not insulated from any retaliation.” Overall, about 700,000 drivers in California have commercial driver’s licenses, which are required to operate everything from big rigs to school buses.

Later this week, the judge will issue a final ruling, and attorneys representing California will explain the process they will use to give 20,000 truckers a chance to keep their licenses while satisfying the federal government’s demands.

Although about 20,000 immigrant drivers will be able to keep their licenses in the short term, they have more limited long-term prospects. Transport department established rule in February prevented states from issuing or renewing licenses to certain immigrants, including many, if not all, of the 20,000 drivers affected by the judge’s temporary ruling. Two major labor unions, the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers, and a consumer rights group, Public Citizen, are suing the federal government for stop this rule effective next month.

The state of California is is also on trial the Department of Transportation over its threats to freeze $160 million in funding and stop the state from issuing trucking licenses in the future.

Loss of trucking license – and $70,000

In September, Alejandro, a Bay Area truck driver and asylum seeker from South America, received a notice from the California DMV telling him his license would be suspended. CalMatters agreed to remain anonymous because he said he was concerned about being harassed.

In the past three years, he said he has invested more than $70,000 in his trucking business, including buying his own truck and insuring it. “If I can’t keep my driver’s license, I can’t continue to run my business,” he told CalMatters. The judge’s preliminary ruling today would have allowed him to keep his license until December, when his license was originally set to expire. He said he has permission to work in the United States until 2030.

Many of the drivers are immigrants members of the Sikh communitya religious minority from India. The drivers sued California’s DMV, saying the state didn’t give them a fair chance to fix clerical problems on their licenses. The plaintiffs, who are not named in the lawsuit, include two school bus drivers and three commercial drivers. Many of their licenses were set to expire in 2027 or later.

The driver shortage is already affecting supply chains, said Gunveer Singh, a California-based broker who helps coordinate deliveries across the state. He said the cost of a freight trip from New Jersey to Texas has risen more than 35 percent because of the national shortage of immigrant drivers. “We just can’t find drivers,” he said. “It’s a whole lot of work.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.