What to know about the stricter rules coming to noncitizen truck drivers after fatal Florida crash

It is now significantly harder for non-U S citizens to obtain a commercial driver s license under new rules the Transportation Department imposed Friday Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declared an audit that was done after a deadly crash in Florida last month that was caused by a truck driver attempting an illegal U-turn indicated that the previous rules weren t strict enough and a number of states weren t following them consistently Duffy has stated that truck driver should have never received a commercial license because of his immigration status That review discovered that commercial driver s licenses were improperly issued in California Colorado Pennsylvania South Dakota Texas and Washington But Duffy mentioned the problems were so egregious in California that he is threatening to pull million in federal funding Here s what is changing and what led to the changes Florida crash put the spotlight on immigrant drivers The nationwide audit was kicked off after Harjinder Singh an India-born truck driver made an illegal turn on Florida s Turnpike according to the Florida Highway Patrol A minivan behind it wasn t able to avoid the truck s trailer and crashed into it The driver and two passengers were killed while Singh and a tourist in his truck were not injured Singh lived in California and was originally issued a commercial driver s license in Washington before California issued him one He has been charged with three state counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations Singh s attorney Natalie Knight-Tai declined to comment without delay on the event Bureaucrats have also pointed to two other fatal crashes this year they say were caused by immigrant truck drivers who never should have received licenses A driver in Texas failed to brake and crashed into a line of cars resulting in a -car pileup that killed five people And in Alabama a driver struck four vehicles stopped at a red light killing two people Crash and investigations incite heated political fight The Florida crash and subsequent investigations have fueled arguments between the governors of Florida and California while eliciting outrage from President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Duffy declared the audit ascertained instances in which California Colorado Pennsylvania South Dakota Texas and Washington issued licenses improperly saying the rules need to be stricter But he has homed in on California where he revealed investigators revealed that one in four of the commercial drivers licenses for noncitizens issued since June that they reviewed should have never been issued under the current rules California now has days to audit its scheme and present a plan for complying or liability losing its funding California has pushed back on these insists with a spokesperson for Gov Gavin Newsom saying Duffy doesn t understand federal law and claiming that commercial driver s license holders from California have a significantly lower rate of crashes than both the national average and the Texas average which is the only state with more licensed commercial drivers Duffy had previously threatened to strip particular federal funding from California Washington and New Mexico after he revealed they didn t enforce English proficiency requirements for truckers that went into effect this summer California has been a battleground for the Trump administration with the president and Newsom regularly taking to social media to air their grievances about the other Immigrants will have a hard time getting commercial licenses The new rules only allow noncitizen drivers who have three specific visas to qualify And states will be required to verify their immigration status Only drivers who hold either an H- a H- b or E- visa will qualify H- B is for temporary nonagricultural workers while H- a is for agricultural workers E- is for people who make substantial investments in a U S business The licenses will only be valid for up to one year unless the applicant s visa expires sooner than that Authorities mentioned that out of noncitizens who currently have commercial licenses only about of them would qualify under the new rules But the rules aren t retroactive so those drivers will be able to keep their licenses at least until they come up for renewal All states must pause issuing commercial driver s licenses to noncitizens until they can comply with the new rules Will this worsen the shortage of truckers The noncitizen truck drivers on the road represent about of all the commercial drivers Duffy revealed he thinks there are enough American drivers to deliver all the loads Removing noncitizen drivers from the industry could force trucking companies to increase wages for entry-level operators and draw more job seekers announced Jonathan Marques founder of the Driving Academy in Linden New Jersey Marques declared that could even make the industry more attractive Source