Copyright thediplomat
On September 26, the U.S. Department of Transportation made it significantly harder for non-U.S. citizens to obtain the driver’s license required for work in the country’s commercial long-haul trucking industry. The new rules now only allow noncitizen drivers who hold either an H-2a (agricultural workers), H-2b (temporary nonagricultural workers), or E-2 (people who make substantial investments in a U.S. business) visa to apply for a commercial driver’s license (CDL). The licenses will only be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires before that. The announcement followed an April 28 executive order by the Trump administration mandating that commercial truck drivers demonstrate English proficiency to properly understand road signage, communicate with law enforcement and coworkers, and interact safely with clients. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that out of 200,000 noncitizens who currently have CDLs, only about 10,000 would qualify under the new rules. Noncitizens represent around 5 percent of all commercial drivers in the United States. But the new rules aren’t retroactive, so those drivers with CDLs will be able to keep their licenses 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, and the states will now be required to verify the applicants’ immigration status. Among those whose commercial driver’s licenses are now in jeopardy are Central Asian labor migrants, both those with active U.S. visas and those residing in the country without authorization, who are already dealing with more frequent migration enforcement raids under the current administration. “This work was much easier under [President Joe] Biden – no one cared about your English language skills or immigration status as long as you did your work well and drove safely,” an Ohio-based Kyrgyz truck driver who asked to remain anonymous told The Diplomat. During the call, he noted the difference between more stringent regulations in Republican-governed states and a more welcoming environment in Democratic-governed states like California and Washington. “Now renewing a CDL is going to get hard everywhere and many of my peers might lose their jobs.” The recent scrutiny was kicked off after Harjinder Singh, an India-born truck driver, made an illegal U-turn on Florida’s Turnpike, causing a car crash with a van. The driver of the van and two passengers were killed, while Singh and a passenger 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. Transportation officials 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 17-car pileup that killed five people. And in Alabama, a driver struck four vehicles stopped at a red light, killing two people. “Making commercial drivers more accountable and ensuring that the right people drive these big trucks is important, but these rule changes feel more political than anything else,” said Anis, a Tajikistan native who currently lives in Florida. Anis asked not to use his full name out of fear for his immigration status and ability to renew his current CDL when it expires in 2028. “Trucking can pay up to $2,500 a week and the job is relatively simple, so losing it to such arbitrary rules feels unfair to the Tajiks I know who’re just trying to feed their families back home.” Erlan Sydykov, a Kyrgyz native who owns a small trucking company, laments that over half of his drivers won’t be able to renew their CDLs because they don’t have the right visas or permanent residency in the United States. “That’s on top of me losing drivers to ICE raids that have escalated this year. It’s hurting my business and it’s hurting the drivers’ families.” Facing economic stagnation back home, millions of Central Asians travel abroad each year in search of gainful employment. Russia remains the most popular destination for most of these labor migrants. However, the war in Ukraine and the subsequent migration crackdown on Central Asians in Russia have been redefining regional migration, pushing laborers further out in search of a better life. The United States, once a stable source of income for Central Asians able to obtain a CDL, might no longer be a welcoming destination under the current administration.
