Texas stops issuing CDLs to many foreign nationals after Sean Duffy orders 'drastic restriction'

Texas suspended issuing commercial driver's licenses (CDL) to refugees, asylum seekers, and DACA recipients after a Trump administration audit of CDL issuing revealed that a number of states, including Texas, Washington, California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota, had "licensing patterns not consistent with federal regulations" when it came to foreign drivers.

The audit from the Trump administration came after a high-profile case of an illegal immigrant, Harjinder Singh, who made an illegal U-turn with a semi-truck, resulting in the death of three people. He was charged with vehicular homicide, and it was revealed that he had failed his language proficiency test and could not identify traffic signs. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced in late September that the Trump administration would take emergency action to “drastically restrict who is eligible for a non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits (CLPs) and commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs),” citing the violations from the states.

The Texas Department of Public Safety suspended the issuance of CDLs and CDPs if those applying fall “under the non-domicile, refugee, asylee or DACA categories.”

Governor Greg Abbott wrote of the change, “Texas prohibits CDLs to refugees, asylum seekers & DACA recipients. We already outlawed CDLs for illegal immigrants. I also directed DPS to conduct English Language Proficiency reviews for all commercial license operators. This is in line with Trump's new rules to ‘drastically’ restrict non-U.S. citizens from getting trucking licenses. The goal is to make our roads safer.”

Duffy said of the CDL issuing audit, “Licenses to operate a massive, 80,000-pound truck are being issued to dangerous foreign drivers – often times illegally. This is a direct threat to the safety of every family on the road, and I won’t stand for it. Today’s actions will prevent unsafe foreign drivers from renewing their license and hold states accountable to immediately invalidate improperly issued licenses.”

The Trump administration found that over 25 percent of non-domiciled CDLs reviewed were not issued correctly in California. “In one shocking case, California gave a driver from Brazil a CDL with endorsements to drive a passenger bus and a school bus that was valid for months after his legal presence expired,” the Transportation Department said.