CA Judge Steps in Allowing 20,000 Illegal Alien Truck Drivers to Remain on the Road

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More than 20,000 illegal alien commercial truck drivers in California were about to lose their licenses, until a judge stepped in.

The Trump administration has been pressuring California to revoke the licenses of some illegal alien truck drivers after a series of news reports about truck drivers who did not understand English, causing deadly accidents.

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An Alameda County Superior Court judge issued a ruling on Wednesday barring the state from canceling the licenses.

From CBS News:

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.

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, 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’s 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.

The Department of Transportation has been pushing the California Department of Motor Vehicles to revoke the licenses after it found clerical issues related to the expiration dates on their licenses.

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Katherine Zhao, an attorney with Asian Law Caucus, argued in court that the move would “have a devastating impact, not only on the individuals like you mentioned but their livelihoods because having a commercial license is a requirement of their jobs, but also it would impact their families, the communities that they serve, as well as the larger state and if not the country, because they’re providing essential services.”

This debate is playing out against the backdrop of a slew of deadly crashes involving immigrant drivers. In August, a truck driver from India made an illegal U-turn in Florida and ended up killing three people, ABC7 News reported.

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Fox News Digital reported on another case in Indiana in which an illegal alien truck driver allegedly ran a red light and caused a fatal crash. The Department of Transportation said the driver failed an English proficiency test.

There were several other incidents of this type in California over the past year. The White House has repeatedly demanded that the state revoke the licenses of drivers who cannot understand English. It announced that it was withholding $160 million in funding from the Golden State. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy set a deadline for California to comply. “The process for issuing these licenses is absolutely 100% broken,” he said.

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