On Wednesday, The Post Millennial posted an article about changes being made to the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) program in America.
The article reports:
Roughly 200,000 immigrant truck drivers in the United States are set to lose their commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) this week after a new Trump administration rule went into effect Monday to keep illegal immigrants off the roads.
Under the rule, non-citizens, including asylum seekers, refugees, and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), will no longer be eligible to obtain CDLs, even if they are legally authorized to work in the United States. Those who already hold licenses will not be able to renew them as they expire. Federal data indicates that about 200,000 immigrants currently hold CDLs, accounting for roughly 5 percent of all commercial truck drivers nationwide.
Frankly, I think they are overreacting on this. If someone is legally authorized to work here and speaks English well enough to understand road signs and instructions from law enforcement, I have no problem with them obtaining a license.
The article concludes:
In Washington state, another illegal immigrant truck driver was arrested following a deadly crash in which his tractor-trailer slammed into stopped traffic, killing a 29-year-old man. Authorities said the driver made no attempt to brake and had allegedly falsified his electronic driving logs. Due to sanctuary state laws, he was released.
The issue has also raised concerns about how some drivers obtained licenses in the first place. Washington state officials acknowledged that nearly 700 commercial driver’s licenses were mistakenly issued over seven years to non-citizens who did not qualify.
During his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump called on lawmakers to pass legislation further restricting access to commercial licenses for immigrants. The following day, Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced a bill that would go even further than the administration’s rule by immediately revoking existing CDLs from migrants in the affected categories, rather than allowing them to expire over time.