Immigrant truck drivers in limbo as feds deny California effort to reissue licenses

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Thousands of immigrant drivers whose commercial driver’s licenses are set to expire next month were left bewildered and disappointed when news spread that California was planning on reissuing the licenses — only to learn federal regulators had not authorized doing so.Amarjit Singh, a trucker and owner of a trucking company in the Bay Area, said he and other drivers were hopeful when word of California’s intentions reached them.

“We were happy [the California Department of Motor Vehicles] was going to reissue them,” he said.“But now, things aren’t so clear and it feels like we’re in the dark.”Singh said he doesn’t know whether he should renew his insurance and permits that allow him to operate in different states.“I don’t know if I’m going to have to look for another job,” he said.

“I’m stuck.” World & Nation Amid the federal government’s crackdown on commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants, officials said they found problems in eight states in the wake of several deadly crashes.Singh is one of 17,000 drivers who were given 60-day cancellation notices on Nov.6 following a federal audit of California’s non-domiciled commercial driver’s license program, which became a political flashpoint after an undocumented truck driver was accused of making an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people.The nationwide program allows immigrants authorized to work in the country to obtain commercial driver’s licenses.

But officials said the federal audit found that the California Department of Motor Vehicles had issued thousands of licenses with expiration dates that extended beyond the work permits, prompting federal officials to halt the program until the state was in compliance.This week, the San Francisco Chronicle obtained a letter dated Dec.10 from DMV Director Steve Gordon to the U.S Department of Transportatio...