{"id":138682,"date":"2026-02-19T12:46:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/138682\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T12:46:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:46:06","slug":"immigrant-new-yorkers-denied-commercial-driver-licenses-following-trump-funding-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/138682\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigrant New Yorkers denied commercial driver licenses following Trump funding threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York\u2019s DMV has stopped issuing commercial driver licenses to many immigrants following an order from the Trump administration<\/a> \u2013 a move unions say has major implications for the MTA and school bus service.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration announced it was rolling out new license restrictions<\/a> in the fall in response to crashes involving what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called \u201cforeign drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal government threatened to withhold highway funds if states did not cease issuing commercial driver licenses to many noncitizen applicants.<\/p>\n

As a fight plays out in court over the Trump administration\u2019s demand, New York has paused the \u201cnon-domiciled\u201d program, which allowed drivers who do not reside in the state, including immigrants legally in the United States, to obtain commercial licenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon specific order from the federal government, New York\u2019s non-domiciled CDL program is indefinitely paused, including renewals,\u201d DMV spokesperson Walter McClure said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The city wrote in a lawsuit that as many as 200,000 immigrants, most of whom are truckers, could be put out of work by the federal policy. Duffy has threatened to withhold $73 million in highway funds from New York.<\/p>\n

Rosario Argueta, who has a visa from El Salvador, lost her job of 16 years as a school bus driver on Long Island earlier this month. She said the DMV informed her she would not be able to renew her commercial driver license because of the new restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love my job. I didn\u2019t believe it,\u201d she said. \u201cThey just kicked us out.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her company, Suffolk Transportation Services, is keeping her on as an assistant monitor, where she’ll earn $15 less per hour than in her previous job.<\/p>\n

“What I could cover with a check or two, I’ll have to do it with four checks now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Argueta said she has asked her children in college to take on additional work, and may have to cut her tuition payments. She said she believes hundreds of her coworkers are also at risk of losing their commercial licenses and livelihoods because of the new rules.<\/p>\n

“It still hasn’t hit me,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it’s awful to know there are many of us in this situation.”<\/p>\n

Paul Quinn Mori, president of the New York School Bus Contractors Association, said about 5% of the state\u2019s yellow bus drivers are licensed through the \u201cnon-domiciled\u201d program, noting that all school bus drivers must undergo strict vetting that includes a criminal records check and fingerprints.<\/p>\n

He worried the federal rules change would exacerbate a nationwide shortage of yellow bus drivers, making it even harder to get kids to and from school on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been short drivers to begin with and now we\u2019re excluding a whole group of people,\u201d he said. \u201cThe thought of losing these drivers, it\u2019s weighing on us, it\u2019s hurting us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carolyn Rinaldi, spokesperson for New York City\u2019s largest school bus drivers union, the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1181, said the shifting guidance is destabilizing to school communities and unfair to drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do not deserve to be punished for following the law and serving their communities with dedication and professionalism,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bus drivers from the MTA are also affected.<\/p>\n

Yunaikl Mora, a green card holder from the Dominican Republic, had been working as a bus driver for the MTA for nine months when she was informed that she wouldn\u2019t be able to renew her commercial driver license.<\/p>\n

Now she said she\u2019s not sure how she\u2019ll be able to support her 3-year-old son.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel destroyed,\u201d she said. \u201dI have people that depend on me, like my baby, so I\u2019m struggling with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mora, who said she came to the United States because of \u201cthe American Dream,\u201d is applying for citizenship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a good driver. When I’m behind the wheel I\u2019m very conscious, very mindful. I’m respecting the law,\u201d she said. \u201cSo that’s hard when you’re trying to do the right thing and this happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen, who represents MTA bus drivers, denounced Gov. Kathy Hochul for bowing to the federal threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is another case of Kathy Hochul sticking it to working people,\u201d Samuelsen said. \u201cShe wants her rich donors to think she’s fighting while dumping working people into the wood chipper. This is about whether hardworking drivers can earn a fair wage and Hochul doesn’t give a s— about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Hochul said the problem stems from the Trump administration\u2019s policies, not the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

“The only person John Samuelsen should be blaming for this is Sean Duffy,\u201d said spokesperson Sean Butler.<\/p>\n

McClure, the DMV spokesperson, noted that commercial driver licenses are regulated by the federal government and called the rules change \u201cjust another stunt by Secretary Duffy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s DMV has stopped issuing commercial driver licenses to many immigrants following an order from the Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-138682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-manhattan","9":"tag-manhattan-headlines","10":"tag-manhattan-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}