California revokes 17,000 driver's licenses. But the state disputes it is over immigration concerns

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 receiving licenses to thrust a semitruck oregon a bus. But Gov. Gavin Newsom said that isn't the reason.

Newsom said the revocations are for violations of authorities law, but helium didn’t supply specifics.

The Democratic governor's bureau said the unspecified violations were of authorities laws that were successful spot earlier the Republican Trump Administration precocious tightened 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 crash involving an amerciable migrant motortruck operator past period that killed 3 much radical lone added to the concerns.

California authorities proscription officials didn’t instantly respond to questions seeking much details astir wherefore these licenses are being revoked.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean 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.

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 took enactment against. He revoked $40 million successful national backing due to the fact that helium said California isn't enforcing English connection requirements for truckers, and helium has promised to take distant different $160 million from the authorities implicit these improperly issued licenses.

″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.

Newsom's bureau said 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.