New York was on firm legal footing when it issued commercial driver’s licenses to migrants with iffy legal status even though they were valid beyond the period of time the federal government had authorized them to work, an appeals court ruled.
That may seem illogical, but it is how the Transportation Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had written its regulations, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.
Trump officials said it was “common sense” not to have licenses last longer than a migrant’s work permit from the Department of Homeland Security, but the court said even those officials admitted that’s not how the agency’s rules actually read.
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“FMCSA concedes that the plain text of the regulations does not contain an expiration-matching requirement, and regulatory structure and history reinforces that conclusion,” wrote Judge Alison J. Nathan, a Biden appointee to the court.
She was joined by Judge Sara Merriam, another Biden pick, and Judge Matthew Schwartz, a Trump appointee.
The FMCSA has since rewritten the regulation to remove the conflict. It has been challenged in court, but remains in effect while the case plays out.
The migrants at issue are in the U.S. without a legal visa, but generally have been granted some exception that allows them to remain nonetheless. That includes those seeking asylum whose cases hadn’t been ruled on, and those here under “parole,” which the Biden administration granted to millions of illegal immigrants.
Under the law, many of them can seek work permits from DHS, despite their lack of full legal status.
But those work permits are usually only good for a year or two before needing renewal.
New York allowed CDLs to be good for five years for new issues, and up to eight years for renewals, and it allowed so-called “non-domiciled drivers” — the migrants in question — to obtain them.
That meant a migrant could have lost the right to work, but still held a commercial license suggesting the ability to work.
Federal investigators reviewed 200 non-domiciled CDLs from New York and discovered 101 of them had validity dates beyond their work permits.
The Transportation Department said it was docking New York $73.5 million until it revoked those licenses.
The state resisted, and ultimately sued.
Friday’s appeals court ruling overturned the Transportation Department’s decision.
Non-domiciled CDLs have been a particular focus of the Trump administration, which said it was dangerous to allow migrants with iffy legal status and an often tenuous grasp of English behind the wheel of massive trucks.
The Transportation Department has been documenting cases of fatal crashes involving those drivers.
Over the summer, the department shut down 110 big-rig driving schools investigators said were churning out drivers without knowing whether they could speak English.
As part of the government’s investigation, it found one case out of New York where the state issued a CDL to Anmol Anmol, a migrant, under the identity “No Name Given Anmol.”
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