Without licenses, migrant truck drivers struggle to survive – CalMatters

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Thousands of immigrant truck drivers in California find themselves in legal limbo after the Trump administration ordered the state to revoke their licenses earlier this year. Many of them are now unemployed and unable to support their families.

Numerous lawsuits have been filed to reinstate commercial driver’s licenses, also known as trucking permits, but so far none of the cases have kept these drivers on the road.

while 61,000 truck drivers in California will lose their licenses in the coming years as a result of federal action, representing between 5% and 10% of licensees in the state. About 13,000 drivers have already lost their licenses, which industry experts say could increase transportation costs in the state.

Many of the affected drivers are asylum seekers or people with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. They have the legal right to live and work in the United States, but the Trump administration claims, without accurate data, that these truckers drive more dangerously than American citizens or immigrants with more permanent status, such as green card holders. To justify its crackdown, the federal government cited several fatal accidents last year involving Punjabi truck drivers, including one in Ontario in October in which three died persons.

For affected immigrant drivers, losing their driver’s licenses threatens their livelihoods.

One of them, whose last name is Singh, has two children and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. For years, he rarely came home because of his job as a long-haul truck driver transporting goods across the country. CalMatters agreed not to publish his first name because he fears retaliation from immigration authorities.

Singh has the legal right to live and work in the United States because a judge approved his asylum application. He applied for permanent residency three years ago, but has yet to receive it. If he had received it, he would have been exempt from federal immigration control measures and policies.

As an independent contractor, Singh works on contract with delivery companies, earning between $11,000 and $16,000 a month. But the costs are high. Four years ago, he bought his own truck for $160,000 and has to pay $3,000 a month in loans, plus $1,500 a month in insurance.

Due to the new control measures, Singh lost his commercial license on March 6 and can no longer drive his truck. The California Department of Motor Vehicles issued him a temporary license that allowed him to drive a car, but the license was not sufficient identification, according to Singh, because many employers did not recognize it. The provisional license is not physical, nor does it have a photo.

Singh said his wife has started working as a nanny while he looks for work.

“What kind of job will allow me to pay the rent and all these expenses?” he said during a phone interview with CalMatters as his children, ages 4 and 8, screamed in the background.

A year of waiting for a decision.

In September, the Trump administration criticized the California Department of Motor Vehicles for issuing commercial licenses with validity dates that do not coincide with those of drivers’ work permits. The federal government then ordered California to revoke thousands of licenses for the transportation of certain noncitizens and created a new policy barring such immigrant drivers from obtaining licenses in the future. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the allegations were unfairly Fr fake but finally the state complied with the order.

In February, an Alameda County Superior Court judge ordered the state to give drivers like Singh the ability to get your licenses back after a law firm and two legal advocacy groups, the Asian Legal Group and the Sikh Coalition, will file a lawsuit on behalf of truck drivers.

But California has not yet reissued any of the 13,000 licenses it revoked.

“The court ruled that the DMV must accept new applications and process them within a reasonable time,” DMV spokesman Jonathan Groveman told CalMatters via email. The DMV informed Singh and other affected drivers that they could reapply for their licenses and that the process could take time. up to one year . Still, the DMV told an Alameda County Superior Court judge that it may not be able to make a decision on the licenses.

The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is delaying the decision due to pressure from the US Department of Transportation, which has threatened to fine California if it issues business licenses to these immigrants. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has already announced he will withhold roughly $160 million in federal highway funds earmarked for the state because of his previous handling of the trucking licensing issue. He also indicated that if the state reissues the licenses, the Department of Transportation will consider stricter measures, including the complete withdrawal of the state’s ability to issue freight licenses.

California Department of Motor Vehicles judge Ministry of Transport in February in response to the threats. Other court cases, incl one in Washington, DC may change some of the policies affecting immigrant drivers in California, but they are not yet resolved.

In March, Singh called his bank to ask about deferring payments on his truck loan while he waited for a decision to reinstate his license. He said the bank was aware of his situation because it had received several similar calls from other truckers this week. However, his request was denied.

On April 2, the Alameda judge held another hearing to get an update on the Department of Motor Vehicles’ (DMV) efforts to reinstate the licenses. The state said it is still resolving its dispute with the Trump administration and expects resolution of related legal proceedings, which could take months. The judge agreed to re-examine the matter in October.