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The Trump administration's crackdown on immigrant truckers hit a possible speed bump today. An appeals court panel in Washington, D.C., heard arguments about a regulation that blocks many legal immigrants from getting commercial driver's licenses. Critics say it's really about forcing immigrant drivers off the road. NPR's Joel Rose reports.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: For a year, the Trump administration has targeted immigrant truckers in the name of safety after deadly crashes involving foreign-born drivers in Florida and California. Here's Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy last month.
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SEAN DUFFY: If you're here illegally and you can't speak the language and you're not well-trained, you don't deserve to be in a big rig, driving on American roads, endangering American citizens.
ROSE: To be clear, states are already blocked from giving commercial driver's licenses to anyone in the U.S. illegally. But this crackdown is catching legal immigrants too. The regulation that's being challenged in court today would deny commercial driver's licenses to many immigrants with temporary legal status and valid work permits, including asylum-seekers, as well as DACA recipients. By the DOT's own estimate, nearly 200,000 immigrants could lose their licenses and, critics say, their livelihoods.
MANSIMRAN SINGH KAHLON: This could be devastating.
ROSE: Mansimran Singh Kahlon owns a small trucking company in Virginia. He was one of several dozen supporters who gathered near the courthouse on Pennsylvania Avenue today to show their solidarity with immigrant truckers. Kahlon questions the Trump administration's intentions.
KAHLON: They are hundred percent scapegoating. The goal wasn't safety. The ramifications are not safety. Safety is not the topic here. The topic is scapegoating, boogeymanning (ph).
ROSE: This is the DOT's second attempt to stop many legal immigrants from getting commercial driver's licenses. The first was blocked in court. The new rule faced skepticism today when a three-judge panel from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case. They had tough questions for Justice Department lawyer Simon Jerome.
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SIMON JEROME: The problem, I think, your Honor, is that it's unreasonable to expect a state agency to interpret that. I think it's important...
UNIDENTIFIED JUDGE: Why? you're expecting employers to interpret it. Are state agencies not as smart as employers?
JEROME: I don't think that's right, your Honor. So the rule...
ROSE: The DOT argues the new rule is needed because state DMVs can't evaluate the driving records of immigrants who have not been thoroughly vetted. But the administration's critics disagree. They say there is no evidence that foreign-born drivers are less safe than U.S. citizens, and they're urging the court to block this rule, just like the administration's first attempt.
Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington.
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