Rule of the road

Citing several high-profile crashes, the U.S. Department of Transportation said states were compromising safety by handing out CDLs like they were candy.

Specifically, the administration began focusing on truck drivers who don’t meet English-proficiency standards and a surge in the utilization of non-domiciled CDLs.

“This is a license to operate a massive 80,000-pound truck that is being issued to foreign drivers who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said during a news conference in September 2025. “The process for issuing these licenses is absolutely 100% broken. It has become a threat to public safety, and it is a national emergency that requires action right now.”

Within days of Duffy’s remarks, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published an emergency interim final rule that would revoke nearly 200,000 non-domiciled CDLs.

The rule was immediately met with opposition, suggesting the agency issued it before holding a public comment period. While that argument slowed the administration down, FMCSA’s rule took effect on March 16.

“For far too long, America has allowed dangerous foreign drivers to abuse our truck licensing systems – wreaking havoc on our roadways,” Duffy said. “This safety loophole ends today. Moving forward, unqualified foreign drivers will be unable to get a license to operate an 80,000-pound big rig. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are putting the safety of the driving public first. From enforcing English language standards to holding fraudulent carriers accountable, we will continue to attack this crisis on our roads head-on.”

The rule

FMCSA estimated that there were about 200,000 non-domiciled CDL holders and that the final rule would force about 194,000 to “exit the freight market.”

Under the rule, an Employment Authorization Document is no longer enough to obtain a non-domiciled CDL. Additionally, asylum seekers, asylees, refugees and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients would be ineligible.

While it will take months or longer to determine how the rule will affect the industry in terms of safety and freight rates, states began canceling thousands of CDLs. On March 6, the California Department of Motor Vehicles announced that it canceled about 13,000 non-domiciled CDLs.

Debating the rule

The House Oversight, Investigations and Accountability Subcommittee held a hearing in March to discuss how the prevalence of non-domiciled CDLs could affect national security.

“You don’t have to be a scholar to understand what a bad actor could do with a 40-ton tractor-trailer, especially one hauling hazardous cargo onto highways,” said Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla. “In the wrong hands, that vehicle is not just a truck. It’s a weapon capable of threatening public safety and national security.”

Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., said removing 200,000 CDL holders will actually hinder safety as it will force the industry to replace experienced truck drivers with new ones.

“Every collision is a tragedy, but it is already illegal for undocumented immigrants to hold a CDL,” Thanedar said. “Nothing the Trump administration is proposing, which will take lawful drivers off the road, will improve highway safety. DOT’s rules and GOP bills will actually do the opposite, resulting in more lives lost.”

Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is trying to kill the rule. The plaintiffs argue that the regulation is “arbitrary, capricious or otherwise contrary to law.”

The DOT says the rule is critical to highway safety.

“Petitioners’ contrary arguments rest primarily on a misunderstanding of the rule’s rationale,” attorneys for FMCSA wrote in a response to the court filed on March 16. “The rule does not assert that there is a direct link between immigration status and a driver’s ability to safely operate a commercial motor vehicle … Instead, the salient point is that state licensing authorities do not (and cannot) assess with the same degree of confidence a non-domiciled applicant’s safety because individuals domiciled outside a given state but seeking a CDL – a category almost entirely comprised of non-domiciled aliens – tend to have driving histories outside the reach of U.S. state-level agencies.”

Dalilah’s Law

Although the regulation is being litigated in court, Congress is working to codify the provisions into law.

Proponents point to Dalilah Coleman and her family as a reason why.

Dalilah’s Law refers to Dalilah Coleman, who was 5 years old when she was severely injured in a crash involving a tractor-trailer driven by Partap Singh, who was later arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Coleman was a guest at the State of the Union address when President Donald Trump called for legislation to block illegal and unqualified drivers from obtaining a CDL in the U.S.

Referred to as Dalilah’s Law, Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., introduced an updated version of HR5688 that will crack down on the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, ensure that truck drivers are proficient in English and remove CDL mills.

On March 18, the House T&I Committee voted 35-26 to advance Rouzer’s bill to the full House. LL