California plans to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses given to immigrants after the Trump administration raised concerns about people in the country illegally receiving licenses to drive a semitruck or a bus. But Gov. Gavin Newsom said that isn’t the reason.
Newsom said the revocations are for violations of state law, but he didn’t provide specifics.
The Democratic governor’s office said the unspecified violations were of state laws that were in place before the Republican Trump Administration recently tightened rules following a nationwide commercial driver’s license audit launched after a driver in the country illegally made a U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people.
Fatal truck crashes in Texas and Alabama earlier this year also highlight questions about these licenses. A fiery California crash involving an illegal immigrant truck driver last month that killed three more people only added to the concerns.
California state transportation officials didn’t immediately respond to questions seeking more details about why these licenses are being revoked.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean 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.
Duffy previously imposed new restrictions on which immigrants can qualify for one of these commercial driver’s licenses. He said earlier this fall that California and five other states had improperly issued commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens, but California is the only state Duffy took action against. He revoked $40 million in federal funding because he said California isn’t enforcing English language requirements for truckers, and he has promised to take away another $160 million from the state over these improperly issued license