It appears that U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has had enough.
Byron York at the Washington Examiner lists some of the reasons:
On Aug. 12, the driver of a tractor-trailer truck made an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike near Fort Pierce. It was a crazy, out-of-the-blue move, and the stunned driver of a minivan driving nearby was not able to stop before crashing into the truck, which was blocking all southbound lanes of the turnpike. The driver and two passengers in the minivan were killed.
Authorities quickly determined that the truck driver, 28-year-old Harjinder Singh, was an Indian who was in the United States illegally, having crossed into the U.S. from Mexico in 2018. Even though Singh was in the country illegally, and even though he had limited knowledge of English, and even though he failed a driving test 10 times, the state of California, like the state of Washington earlier, issued him a commercial driver’s license. That is how Singh came to be driving so dangerously on the Florida Turnpike.
Two months later, on Oct. 21, another semitruck driver who was in the U.S. illegally caused a crash that killed three people in Southern California. Authorities say 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh crossed illegally into the U.S. in 2022. Even though he was in the country illegally, and even though federal officials had warned California about its issuance of commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, the state gave Singh a license. That is how he came to be driving so dangerously in Southern California.
The two cases raised obvious questions about California’s issuance of commercial driver’s licenses. California is one of 19 states that issue driver’s licenses regardless of an applicant’s immigration status. In the cases of both Harjinder Singh and Jashanpreet Singh, California issued what is called a non-domiciled commercial driver’s license, that is, a license granted to a driver who does not live in the state.
On Wednesday, the federal Department of Transportation took action against California. “U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy announced today that the California Department of Motor Vehicles has admitted to illegally issuing 17,000 non-domiciled Commercial Drivers Licenses to dangerous foreign drivers,” the department said in a press release. “Thanks to the Federal Motor Center Safety Administration’s ongoing audit, each of these licenses is being revoked.”
Gov. Newsom, of course, is denying any wrongdoing. The fact remains that his dedication to illegals (and eventually, their votes) is costing American lives.
That's 17,000 drivers, each one a ticking time bomb. For those unaware, I drove a tractor-trailer for over 15 years, and I witnessed just how much of a problem this really is. I can tell you from firsthand experience, it's frightening out there.
Exclusively for our VIPs:
The Twin Problems of Illegal Aliens and Unqualified Truck Drivers (Part One)
The Twin Problems of Illegal Aliens and Unqualified Truck Drivers (Part Two)
The Dept. of Transportation said in a press release:
“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.”
The DOT press release called out the extent of the misfeasance: "[Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s] FMCSA’s nationwide non-domiciled CDL audit uncovered systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors in California’s non-domiciled CDL program which allowed thousands of CDLs to be illegally issued to foreign drivers. The audit also found that more than one in four of the non-domiciled CDL records sampled in California failed to comply with federal regulations. This includes issuing licenses that extended well beyond a foreigner’s work permit."
The FMSCA promises to take action against California:
In October, the Department announced it is withholding over $40 million from California following an investigation that found the state has failed to comply with the Department’s English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards.
The Department first threatened to withhold funds from California in August if they failed to adopt and enforce ELP requirements for commercial motor vehicle drivers. In July, California Highway Patrol has publicly stated it had no intention of following this important federal regulation.
In May, Secretary Duffy signed an order announcing new guidelines to strengthen English language enforcement for commercial truck operators. Under the new guidance, commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers who fail to comply with FMCSA longstanding English-language proficiency (ELP) requirements will be placed out-of-service.
It's well past time for this action. At a minimum, any driver — and I mean any driver — should be able to meet and exceed the qualifications.
And before we start hearing about driver shortages, there are none. What we have is pay shortages. There are reasons why people go out of their way to hire unqualified drivers: lower pay and a willingness to bend the rules to get the freight where it's going. There's less paperwork when it's mostly under the table. These are things the domestic driver cannot do under the law. Illegal aliens supposedly can't either, but they have less to lose, given they're already breaking the law by even being here.
I note with interest the lawsuit leveled by the Florida AG against California. The Tampa Free Press reported Thursday:
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has announced a sweeping legal offensive against California and Governor Gavin Newsom, filing a lawsuit in the United States Supreme Court over California’s policy of allegedly issuing commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to illegal immigrants.
[…]
Appearing on Fox & Friends on Thursday, Uthmeier stated that the incident was a direct consequence of California’s sanctuary state policies that threaten public safety across the nation. “We can do everything right here in Florida… it’s illegal to give any license to illegal aliens, but when California engages in this unlawful behavior, we are harmed, we suffer,” Uthmeier said.
We all suffer when immigration laws are ignored for any reason and most egregiously when it's done as the left has been doing, for political gain.
While the safety aspect of this issue correctly centers on unqualified drivers, the illegal workers, even those not driving, also suffer and for the same reason: longer hours and low pay. Try loading or unloading at most warehouses around the New York City area, including in New Jersey and southern New England, and you'd better be up on your Spanish, or Mandarin, or you can forget any meaningful communication.
Again, it's all the result of "sanctuary" policies. That's the root of the problem.
