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California plans to revoke 17,000 commercialized driver's licenses fixed to immigrants aft the Trump medication raised concerns astir radical successful the state illegally improperly receiving licenses to thrust a semitruck oregon a bus. But Gov. Gavin Newsom said that isn't the reason.
The licenses were revoked due to the fact that authorities officials discovered their expiration dates went past erstwhile the drivers were legally allowed to beryllium successful the United States, based connected DMV documents, the California's State Transportation Agency said.
Both the Democratic governor's bureau and the Republican Trump administration's Transportation Department agreed that these licenses violated the existing modular that were successful spot earlier Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy precocious tightened the rules pursuing a nationwide commercialized driver's licence audit launched aft a operator successful the state illegally made a U-turn and caused a clang successful Florida that killed 3 people.
Fatal motortruck crashes successful Texas and Alabama earlier this twelvemonth besides item questions astir these licenses. A fiery California clang involving an amerciable migrant motortruck operator past period that killed 3 much radical lone added to the concerns.
Duffy said Wednesday that California's enactment to revoke these licenses is an admittance that the authorities had acted improperly adjacent though the authorities had antecedently defended its licensing standards. California launched its reappraisal of commercialized driver's licenses the authorities had issued aft Duffy raised concerns.
Duffy antecedently imposed caller restrictions connected which immigrants tin suffice for 1 of these commercialized driver's licenses. He said earlier this autumn that California and 5 different states had improperly issued commercialized driver's licenses to noncitizens, but California is the lone authorities Duffy has taken enactment against due to the fact that it was the archetypal 1 wherever an audit was completed. The reviews successful the different states person been delayed by the authorities shutdown, but the Transportation Department is urging each of them to tighten up their standards.
Duffy revoked $40 cardinal successful national backing due to the fact that helium said California isn't enforcing English connection requirements for truckers, and helium reiterated Wednesday that helium volition instrumentality different $160 cardinal from the authorities implicit these improperly issued licenses if they don't invalidate each amerciable licence and code each the concerns. But revoking these licenses is portion of the state's effort to comply.
"After weeks of claiming they did thing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California person been caught red-handed. Now that we've exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked," Duffy said. "This is conscionable the extremity of iceberg. My squad volition proceed to unit California to beryllium they person removed each amerciable migrant from down the instrumentality of semitrucks and schoolhouse buses."
Newsom's bureau said that each 1 of the drivers whose licenses are being revoked had valid enactment authorizations from the national government.
"Once again, the Sean 'Road Rules' Duffy fails to stock the information - spreading easy disproven falsehoods successful a bittersweet and hopeless effort to delight his beloved leader," Newsom's spokesperson Brandon Richards said.
The caller rules for commercialized driver's licenses that Duffy announced successful September marque getting commercialized driver's licenses highly hard for immigrants due to the fact that lone 3 circumstantial classes of visa holders volition beryllium eligible. States volition besides person to verify an applicant's migration presumption successful a national database. These licenses volition beryllium valid for up to 1 twelvemonth unless the applicant's visa expires sooner than that.
Under the caller rules, lone 10,000 of the 200,000 noncitizens who person commercialized licenses would suffice for them, which would lone beryllium disposable to drivers who person an H-2a, H-2b oregon E-2 visa. H-2a is for impermanent cultivation workers portion H-2B is for impermanent nonagricultural workers, and E-2 is for radical who marque important investments successful a U.S. business. But the rules won't beryllium enforced retroactively, truthful those 190,000 drivers volition beryllium allowed to support their commercialized licenses astatine slightest until they travel up for renewal.
Those caller requirements were not successful spot astatine the clip these 17,000 licenses were issued. But these drivers were fixed notices that their licenses volition expire successful 60 days.
Duffy said successful September that investigators recovered that 1 4th of the 145 licenses they reviewed successful California shouldn't person been issued. He cited 4 California licenses that remained valid aft the driver's enactment licence expired - sometimes years after.
Newsom's bureau said the authorities followed guidance it received from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security astir issuing these licenses to noncitizens.
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Associated Press writer Sophie Austin contributed to this study from Sacramento, California.
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