A few weeks ago, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy issued an emergency action plan including new emergency federal restrictions for non-citizens seeking commercial driver’s licenses (CDL), in the wake of horrific traffic accidents caused by illegal immigrant drivers recklessly disregarding American rules for the road.
The emergency action plan included a threat to seriously fine the State of California for essentially running a CDL mill for illegals, as one-quarter of these licenses issued were for “non-domiciled” drivers.
Now it is being reported that California will revoke 17,000 CDLs given to illegal aliens after the expiration dates pass, when the drivers were legally allowed to be in the country.
The announcement follows harsh criticism from the Trump administration about California and other states granting licenses to people in the country illegally. The issue was thrust into the public’s consciousness in August, when a tractor-trailer driver not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that California’s action to revoke these licenses is an admission that the state acted improperly even though it previously defended its licensing standards. California launched its review of commercial driver’s licenses it issued after Duffy raised concerns….Newsom’s office said that every one of the drivers whose license is being revoked had valid work authorizations from the federal government. At first, his office declined to disclose the exact reason for revoking the licenses, saying only they violated state law. Later, his office revealed the state law it was referring to was one that requires the licenses expire on or before a person’s legal status to be in the United State ends, as reported to the DMV.
Duffy indicates that 17,000 is merely “the tip of the iceberg“.
“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed,” Duffy said. “Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked. This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Like, 17,000 is the only number that is being admitted to…for now. This issue will likely be a focus of debate during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bid for the presidency.
Now Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL) is calling for a federal crackdown on sanctuary-state policies that allow illegal immigrants to obtain commercial driver’s licenses after a joint ICE and Oklahoma Highway Patrol operation arrested 34 illegal immigrants accused of driving commercial trucks while unlawfully in the country.
“You have blue states that do not care about the nation’s laws. They want to be sanctuaries, they want to house illegals, and then who pays the price are citizens in red states who actually do not want these sanctuary policies,” Donalds, a Republican, told Fox News Digital.Donalds said the incident in Oklahoma underscores a growing national safety risk – foreign nationals who “cannot read our road signs” yet are “gaming the system” to obtain commercial licenses in states like California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey….Donalds said legislation he has introduced, the WEIGH Act, would give the federal government new tools to stop states from issuing CDLs to illegal immigrants and to punish those that do.”This is one of the reasons why I sponsored the WEIGH Act here in D.C.,” he explained. “It would actually give broader authority for the Department of Transportation to not just hold other states accountable that are letting these CDL licenses be issued, but would also give the Department of Treasury the ability to withhold federal funds in the process.”
It will be interesting to look at transportation statistics over the next few years to see how much difference the America First policy has made.
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