The Trump administration’s effort to reduce the number of accidents involving large trucks has taken aim at deficient truck driving schools and tightened a rule requiring that drivers are proficient in English.
But a major part of its trucking crackdown — a new emergency rule that prohibits certain classes of immigrants from obtaining truck driver’s licenses — has drawn fierce criticism and legal challenges. The moves are in line with the administration’s continued efforts to remove certain foreigners from the United States and bar others from entering.
The immigrants targeted by the new regulation are those in the United States as asylum seekers, refugees and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Previous policies allowed such immigrants to obtain a so-called non-domiciled commercial driver’s license if they were authorized to work in the United States.
The administration, citing recent fatal accidents, says these classes of immigrants can be dangerous drivers. Just like Americans, the immigrants have to go to truck driving schools and pass tests to obtain a license. And critics of the rule say the administration has not produced data showing that immigrant drivers are less safe.
“It doesn’t look believable to anyone in the industry when you accuse them of being unsafe,” said Al Bagiro, chief insurance officer at Cogo Insurance, a truck insurer, referring to the targeted drivers.
Other opponents of the new policy, which was stayed by a federal appeals court last month, say it discriminates against immigrants.
“The rule succeeds at perpetuating the myth that all immigrant drivers (regardless of their legal status) are unqualified or dangerous,” groups representing Sikhs in the United States argued in a legal filing opposing the rule. Around 150,000 Sikhs drive trucks in the United States.
“This, in turn, inflames anti-immigrant bias towards immigrant truck drivers, especially Sikh drivers,” the filing said.
Trucking can be a demanding job, often requiring that drivers be on the road for long periods. The job has long attracted immigrants hoping to earn a potentially substantial wage soon after arriving in the United States. Trucking companies, particularly smaller ones, have struggled financially in the last couple of years, with too many drivers chasing too little business.
Fatal crashes involving large trucks have declined in recent years. In the 12 months through September, there were 3,632, down 15 percent from 4,292 in the same period a year earlier, according to data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the part of the Department of Transportation that regulates trucking and bus services.
No studies have been conducted to show how many holders of non-domiciled licenses have been involved in crashes.
In making the case for its crackdown, the Trump administration has highlighted fatal crashes involving semis driven by immigrants, contending that they should not have had truck driving licenses.
In August, a minivan on Florida’s turnpike crashed into a truck that was, according to the state’s department of highway safety, making an illegal U-turn. Three people in the minivan died. The driver of the truck, who survived the crash, obtained his commercial driver’s license in California and was, according to the Department of Homeland Security, in the United States illegally. To obtain a non-domiciled C.D.L., a person must have documentation to work in the United States.
The driver, Harjinder Singh, has pleaded not guilty to charges of vehicular homicide and vehicular manslaughter, and a representative for Mr. Singh said he had authorization to work in the United States.
When the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration imposed the rule barring certain types of noncitizens from getting a non-domiciled commercial driver’s license, it said state licensing agencies could not check the driving histories of such applicants in their home country because they existed “predominantly or solely within a foreign jurisdiction.” The rule allows people in the United States on employment-based visas to get commercial driving licenses.
In a defeat for the Transportation Department, a federal appeals court last month stayed the rule, saying the safety administration did not appear to show that the regulations “would produce any net safety benefit.” The judges also noted that, when formulating the rule, the safety administration itself had said there was not sufficient evidence to show a measurable relationship between the nation of domicile of a commercial driver and “safety outcomes in the United States.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation said that at the time the rule was issued, the F.M.C.S.A. had identified five crashes resulting in 12 fatalities that involved people holding non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses.
“Our common-sense rule puts the safety of the American people first,” she said. “Our nationwide audit identified several factors that presented significant safety issues, including a systemic breakdown of unqualified, unvetted drivers.”
The F.M.C.S.A. said that it was going to reissue the rule after reviewing public comments, and that it might be changed.
Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, has focused his criticisms about non-domiciled drivers on Democratic states like California and New York, saying federal audits of the states have shown that they issued licenses when they should not have. He has threatened to withhold tens of millions of dollars in federal funds from states if they do not overhaul their licensing operations.
California has since acknowledged that it issued some 17,000 non-domiciled driver’s licenses and learner permits that did not comply with regulations, but a spokeswoman for the California State Transportation Agency did not respond when asked for specifics. There are some 65,000 holders of non-domiciled licenses and permits in California.
And in response to Mr. Duffy’s accusation that it had unsafe licensing practices, California said truck drivers of all types licensed in the state had a lower rate of being involved in fatal crashes than those from most other states.
The California transport agency said drivers with C.D.L.s. issued in that state were involved in fatal accidents at a rate of 0.84 per 1,000 license holders in 2023.
Asked whether the Trump administration was overly focused on Democratic states and not applying sufficient scrutiny to red states like Texas, the Transportation Department spokeswoman said its policies were being applied evenly.
“The nationwide audit will continue until all illegally issued licenses are identified and the unqualified drivers are off America’s roads,” she said.
Of Texas’ 576,389 commercial drivers, 700 were involved in fatal crashes in 2023, or a rate of 1.21 crashes per 1,000 license holders, according to California’s data.
If the Trump administration’s policies end up removing thousands of drivers from the industry, it will not lead to the sort of driver shortage that would roil supply chains, logistics experts said.
“I don’t see a large impact on the industry with what I’ve seen thus far,” said Logan Cooper, a senior manager at OEC Group, an international logistics company.
The Transportation Department’s clampdown on poorly run truck driving schools has drawn support from the industry. Andrew Poliakoff, the executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association, a group representing truck driving schools, said he supported the administration’s campaign against badly run schools, which, he said, have proliferated in recent years.
“That is something that we viewed as critically important and, frankly, refreshing,” Mr. Poliakoff said.
Peter Eavis reports on the business of moving stuff around the world.
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