Overview
- A September federal rule now limits commercial driver’s licenses to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, with FMCSA estimating nearly 200,000 immigrants could lose work.
- New York confirmed a pause on immigrant CDL issuance, and California moved to revoke about 17,000 licenses after DOT withheld roughly $40 million, as other states face highway-funding threats.
- FMCSA recently removed nearly 3,000 entries from the Entry-Level Driver Training registry and warned thousands more following nationwide reviews of training quality and records.
- At a Pennsylvania Senate hearing, PennDOT said DHS’s SAVE system twice cleared an Uzbek suspect for a non-domiciled CDL—even after his arrest—underscoring federal–state data gaps.
- DOT audits have flagged lapses such as CDLs outlasting immigration authorization, and portions of the new restrictions have been temporarily stayed as a D.C. Circuit challenge backed by a city and labor groups advances.