Labor unions with a history of support and donations to Democratic candidates are suing over the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal migrant truck drivers.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and a public interest law firm filed a petition for review that challenges the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) emergency rule on non-domiciled commercial drivers, according to court documents. The lawsuit marks the latest pushback against the Trump administration’s efforts to take illegal migrant truck drivers off the road after a string of serious and fatal accidents.
“For the Trump administration, the cruelty is the point,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a public statement. “This is a spiteful and illegal rule issued with no justification except to hurt hundreds of thousands of lawful immigrants with work authorization who only want to build a better life for themselves and their families.”
In September, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy declared that non-citizens who wish to earn non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) must undergo a mandatory federal immigration status check and have an employment-based visa. The new rule could ultimately affect the roughly 200,000 individuals who carry a non-domiciled CDL — many of them commercial truck drivers who did not enter the United States lawfully.
A spokesperson for the DOT did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF about the new lawsuit.
State governments issue Non-domiciled CDLs to drivers who are not residents of that state, and typically apply to foreign nationals. The term can generally refer to any individual who isn’t an American citizen or green card holder who obtains a CDL in a state where they are not a resident.
The emergency rule followed a growing list of major roadside accidents involving illegal migrant truckers, most notably in August when a truck driver was accused of killing three people who smashed into his truck after he allegedly took an unlawful U-turn along a Florida turnpike. An investigation into the crash discovered that the driver, an Indian national, was not only living in the country illegally, but he also barely understood English and failed to recognize basic road signs.
In his August announcement, Duffy added that an ongoing Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) investigation uncovered a pattern by state officials doling out licenses unlawfully to foreign drivers.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, working alongside the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, arrested more than 90 illegal migrants operating commercial motor vehicles during a three-day operation along a single highway. Altogether, the agency took 120 illegal migrants into custody for various immigration violations.
The Trump administration — which also handed down stricter English language proficiency rules for truck drivers earlier this year — has long argued that the crackdown is intended to keep highways safer. Truck drivers and experts in the industry previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the CDL rules have, in some markets, already helped American truckers earn more cash.
Both the AFT and the AFSCME endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, and both labor unions endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 election and Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
The two labor groups argued in a press release that the current crackdown on non-domiciled CDL holders “threatens the livelihoods” of asylum seekers, refugees and other migrant truckers in the country. Their petition for review was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
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