Thousands of immigrant truck drivers in California had their driver’s licenses canceled over the weekend, and they don’t know whether or when they’ll be able to get one again.
That’s because California, through its Department of Motor Vehicles, canceled the commercial and regular Class C licenses on March 6 of any drivers whose license expiration dates extended beyond their “legal presence documents provided to the DMV.”
The DMV estimates that 13,000 drivers have been impacted across the state.
The DMV’s decision follows a new federal rule that limits immigrants’ license eligibility to a much narrower set of legal statuses, stripping access from asylum seekers, asylees, refugees, and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
“This federal administration is using their war on immigration to remove qualified, hardworking commercial drivers from our workforce who meet language and safety rules,” DMV director Steve Gordon said in a March 6 statement. “There are no guarantees that additional solutions will become available to help these drivers and their employers.”
In compliance with an order from a judge in Alameda County Superior Court, the DMV says that drivers whose licenses were canceled or who surrendered them before the March 6 deadline have the “right to immediately reapply for a license” with the proper expiration date. The DMV notes on its website that the agency does not “know when the DMV will be allowed to issue” new commercial licenses, but will be able to issue a regular Class C license.
The license cancellations are expected to cause severe hardship for commercial truckers in California, including many in the Bay Area. Some of the truckers bought or leased trucks for tens of thousands of dollars and now face repaying big loans and an uncertain future for how they will provide for themselves and their families.
“Drivers with a cancelled CDL stand to lose not only some or all of their income but also potentially their occupation if the state does not create a more permanent solution,” the Asian Law Caucus, one of the organizations supporting the truckers, said in a statement last week.
‘It’s really uncertain’
Truck drivers have stopped by DMV locations in California, such as the one in the Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland, in the last two days to grapple with canceled licenses. Photo: Jose Fermoso for The Oaklandside
A truck driver who works in the Bay Area, with ties to Oakland, told us he received an email on Saturday, March 7, informing him that his license had been canceled. He said he worked for a local waste collection organization for years, earning about $50 an hour with medical insurance that covered his wife and children. Now, without the license, he is unable to work as a driver.
“My wife works as a delivery person for food apps, but that’s not a real job that is consistent,” he said. “Now the gas and grocery prices are going up, and it’s really uncertain.”
He said he’s considering trying to find work in the restaurant industry while he’s barred from trucking, but he knows that would mean earning at least 50% less.
The driver said he came to the U.S. as a child and grew up in San Lorenzo, where he attended local schools and made friends, some of whom, he said, are also being affected by the licensing requirements. He told us that many people he knows have been in line at local DMVs over the last two days, requesting more information and reapplying for their licenses, even as they’re told processing may remain in limbo.
“I know several people, some who are part of our union [the Teamsters], who are trying to figure it out right now, not working,” he said.
The Oaklandside spoke to several other drivers at a local DMV on Tuesday who were also reapplying for their Class C licenses and were worried about the next few weeks without one.
The driver who grew up in San Lorenzo told us that when he reapplied for his license yesterday, the DMV worker he dealt with took his current license from him because it was no longer valid.
A class action suit
Starting November 6 of last year, the DMV notified thousands of immigrant drivers that it would cancel their commercial driver’s licenses in the new year, according to the Asian Law Caucus. By December, the caucus had joined with the Sikh Coalition and the firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP to file a class action suit on behalf of the state’s immigrant commercial drivers, including two school bus drivers, a tow truck driver, and a driver of tankers. Last week, the Superior Court of California in Alameda County heard arguments from both sides, and Judge Karin Schwartz ordered the DMV to allow drivers to reapply for their licenses and to provide the corrected licenses “within a reasonable time.”
The state has yet to offer a timeline for reissuing licenses.
The federal government has, over the last few months, threatened states with large immigrant populations, including California, saying officials must either cancel the licenses of undocumented immigrants and those with refugee status documents or face retaliation, such as barring the state from issuing new commercial drivers’ licenses.
Over the last few months, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has focused attention on incidents where immigrant drivers crashed their trucks and killed or injured others.
Katherine Zhao, a senior staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus, told The Oaklandside that immigrant truck drivers helped drive the state’s economy.
“Today’s decision means thousands of hardworking commercial drivers are facing sudden disruption to their livelihoods while they wait for the DMV to fix a problem it created,” she said on March 6 about the commercial license cancellations. “These drivers move goods, transport passengers, and keep our communities running — they deserve a fair and immediate path to restore their licenses.”
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