Overview
- A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., issued an administrative stay last week blocking enforcement of the Transportation Department’s September emergency rule on noncitizen commercial driver’s licenses.
- The court said the government failed to follow proper procedure and noted FMCSA data indicating immigrants hold about 5% of CDLs yet are involved in roughly 0.2% of fatal crashes.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he is preparing legal options to reinstate the restrictions, calling the move necessary for public safety.
- The paused rule would limit eligibility to holders of H-2A, H-2B, or E-2 visas and require federal immigration-status verification, and it would not apply retroactively, allowing most of the roughly 200,000 existing noncitizen CDL holders to keep licenses until renewal.
- Duffy has threatened to withhold federal funds from noncompliant states and has asserted that California agreed to revoke 17,000 improperly issued licenses, claims that remain contested in broader federal–state disputes.