The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has implemented an “emergency interim final rule” that will increase federal oversight of state-issued driver’s licenses and learner’s permits by clamping down on illicit immigrant drivers and ensuring valid certification.
A DOT press release explains and outlines the procedures of the interim rule.
“The rule comes in response to a nationwide review conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) revealing widespread non-compliance among state driver licensing agencies and a troubling series of fatal crashes caused by nondomiciled CDL [Commercial Driver’s License] holders.”
The DOT found “systemic” non-compliance with the FMCSA from license agencies throughout the states of California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington. Examples of non-compliance included “Programming errors and weak quality assurance; and Insufficient staff training that led to CDLs being issued to drivers who were not eligible and to drivers with expiration dates extending beyond a driver’s legal stay in the U.S.”
Further, the interim rule “limits individuals eligible for non-domiciled CLPs [Commercial Learner’s Permits] and CDLs to foreign individuals in lawful status in the United States in certain employment-based, non-immigrant categories, certain individuals domiciled in a U.S. territory, and individuals domiciled in a state that is prohibited from issuing CLPs or CDLs because FMCSA has decertified the state’s CDL program.”
The DOT additionally found that California issued licenses in four instances that stayed valid despite the expiration of the driver’s work permit.
According to The Associated Press, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy “threatened to revoke $160 million in federal funding for California because investigators found that one in four of the 145 commercial drivers licenses for noncitizens issued since June that they reviewed should have never been issued under the current rules.”
The interim rule comes after a series of crashes caused by immigrant drivers with dubious licensing. In April, President Trump signed and executive order requiring commercial truck drivers to be proficient in English.
