More than 20,000 immigrant truck drivers will be able to keep their licenses in California, at least temporarily, despite efforts by the Trump administration and the state of California to revoke them, according to a tentative ruling Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court.<\/p>\n
The decision puts the state of California in a bind. The U.S. Department of Transportation already has repeatedly pushed the California Department of Motor Vehicles to rescind these licenses<\/a>, which belong to many asylum seekers and other immigrants with temporary legal status, after the federal government found alleged clerical issues regarding the expiration dates on their licenses. The California DMV complied with the transportation department\u2019s demands and sent letters to more than 20,000 drivers last fall, telling them that their California licenses would expire in the next 60 days .<\/p>\n But after a law firm and two legal advocacy groups, the Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition, sued<\/a> on behalf of truckers, saying that the state didn\u2019t follow the proper process for rescinding their licenses, the state extended the expiration dates to March 6<\/a>. The transportation department said in January that it will withhold $160 million in federal highway<\/a> funds from California as punishment for extending the expiration dates. <\/p>\n While immigrant drivers in the courtroom celebrated today\u2019s tentative decision, attorneys for the state of California said the judge\u2019s ruling could hurt many more people. The Trump administration has threatened to rescind California\u2019s ability to grant commercial licenses altogether<\/a> if the state doesn\u2019t comply with its orders regarding immigrant truckers. <\/p>\n Forcing the DMV to keep these 20,000 licenses intact \u201cwill risk the ultimate harm that California is trying to avoid,\u201d said Barbara Horne-Petersdorf, an attorney with the California Department of Justice. \u201cDMV is not insulated from any retaliatory action.\u201d All told, about 700,000 drivers in California have commercial driving licenses, which are required to operate everything from big rigs to school buses. <\/p>\n Later this week, the judge will issue a final decision and the attorneys representing California will explain the process they will use to give the 20,000 truckers a chance to keep their licenses while also appeasing the federal government\u2019s demands. <\/p>\n Even though the roughly 20,000 immigrant drivers will be able to keep their licenses in the short term, they have more limited long-term prospects. The transportation department created a rule<\/a> in February preventing states from issuing or renewing licenses to certain immigrants, including many if not all of the 20,000 drivers affected by the judge\u2019s tentative decision. Two major unions, the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers, and a consumer law group, Public Citizen, are suing the federal government to stop that rule<\/a> from taking effect next month.<\/p>\n The state of California is also suing<\/a> the transportation department over its threats to withhold the $160 million in funding and to stop the state from issuing trucking licenses in the future.<\/p>\n Losing a trucking license \u2014 and $70,000 <\/p>\n In September, Alejandro, a Bay Area truck driver and an asylum seeker from South America, received a notice from the California DMV telling him that his license was going to be revoked. CalMatters agreed to withhold his name because he said he\u2019s worried about being harassed.<\/p>\n Over the past three years, he said he\u2019s invested more than $70,000 in his trucking business, including purchasing his own truck and insurance for it. \u201cIf I can\u2019t maintain my license to drive, I can\u2019t continue operating my business,\u201d he told CalMatters. The judge\u2019s tentative decision Wednesday would allow him to hold on to his license through December, when his license was originally set to expire. He said he has a permit to work in the United States through 2030. <\/p>\n