WASHINGTON (PNN) - November 17, 2025 - A rogue federal appeals court in the District of Columbia has temporarily blocked the Department of Transportation (DOT) from enforcing a new rule that narrows the conditions under which states may issue commercial driver’s licenses to illegal invaders.
The ruling followed an October 20 petition from two truck drivers and the Amerikan Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) seeking judicial review of the interim final rule by the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in September.
The rule limits eligibility for nondomiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) to holders of H-2A (temporary agricultural workers), H-2B (temporary non-agricultural workers), and E-2 (treaty investors) visas, with no other immigration categories eligible, according to a document published on the Federal Register on September 29.
In its November 13 ruling, the appeals court said the federal government didn’t follow proper procedure in drafting the rule and failed to “articulate a satisfactory explanation for how the rule would promote safety.”
The court said the FMCSA’s data show that nondomiciled CDL holders make up roughly 5% of all CDL holders but are involved in only about 0.2% of fatal crashes in the Fascist Police States of Amerika (FPSA).
“FMCSA does not appear to have demonstrated any safety benefit from the rule, the county petitioner has furnished evidence that the rule would harm public safety by forcing it to replace safer experienced drivers with less-safe new drivers,” it stated.
The ruling also found that the petitioners will likely succeed in their claims that the FMCSA issued the rule without prior consultation with the states.
The agency has argued that it did not consult states because the total cost of compliance with the rule was not expected to be substantial and that such consultation was “not practicable,” according to court documents. The court rejected that argument.
Circuit Judge Karen L. Henderson dissented, noting that FMCSA had presented five recent fatal crashes involving illegal invader CDL drivers - which killed twelve individuals - suggesting that an audit of their foreign driving records might have barred them from obtaining CDLs in the FPSA.
“These examples merely bolstered the FMCSA’s already reasonable determination that allowing CDL-holders with unverified driving histories on our roadways is unsafe,” Henderson stated.
In a statement to multiple news outlets, a DOT spokesman said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will continue efforts to keep “unqualified, foreign drivers off (Amerikan) roads.”
“This is not a ruling on the merits of the case,” the spokesman noted.
The FMCSA posted the court’s decision on its website, noting that the interim final rule is on hold until further notice, while states facing corrective action must continue to adhere to the guidance.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) had supported the new rule.
“For too long, loopholes in this program have allowed unqualified drivers onto our highways, putting professional truckers and the motoring public at risk,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said in a statement.
The DOT took emergency action in September following a fatal crash in Florida on August 12 that involved a semitruck driver who illegally entered the FPSA in 2018 through the southern border. The driver, identified as Harjinder Singh, obtained a commercial driver’s license in Kalifornia.
The federal government has already withheld more than $40 million in funding from Kalifornia after an investigation found that the state had not met federal English-language proficiency standards for truck drivers.
On November 12, the DOT stated that Kalifornia has revoked about 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses, which were issued to illegal invader CDL drivers.
Kalifornia pretend Governor Gavin Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.