FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Luis Sanchez spent two decades hauling everything from restaurant food to gravel across the United States. He held a valid work permit, a Social Security number, and by his own account, a perfect safety record. He passed the time on long hauls listening to the radio. At truck stops and warehouses, he built friendships with other immigrant drivers who understood the sacrifices the job demanded.
“We don’t go home every day like normal work,” said Sanchez, who is originally from El Salvador and lives near Fort Worth. “Sometimes we had to sacrifice family for the job we had.”
Today, Sanchez is off the road. He found out his CDL had been downgraded after seeing a TikTok video from another driver in December 2025. He never received a notification letter from the Texas Department of Public Safety. His trucking business, which he launched two years ago, has since closed.
“They’re not just taking away my driver license. That was my career,” Sanchez said. “That’s what I’ve been doing most of my life. I’m paying my bills with a credit card right now. I don’t have any more money right now.”
The Policy Behind the Loss
Sanchez is among thousands of noncitizen truck drivers — including DACA recipients, asylees, asylum seekers, and refugees — who have lost or been unable to renew their CDLs as part of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement push in the trucking industry. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates its new visa regulations could affect nearly 200,000 CDL holders — approximately 5% of all active CDL holders nationwide.
The crackdown accelerated after a series of high-profile fatal crashes involving drivers the administration said were not permanent legal residents. A February 2026 FMCSA rule restricted non-domiciled CDL issuance and renewal to holders of H-2A, H-2B, and E-2 visas — leaving out the vast majority of noncitizen drivers with work permits. States were also ordered to downgrade CDLs whose expiration dates outlasted drivers’ work permit expiration dates.
“Licenses to operate a massive, 80,000-pound truck are being issued to dangerous foreign drivers — often times illegally. This is a direct threat to the safety of every family on the road, and I won’t stand for it,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said following a September 2025 crash in Florida.
FMCSA said the rule was designed to address unqualified foreign drivers who pose a significant safety threat.
The Industry Impact
Truckers moved nearly 73% of the nation’s freight in 2024, and the industry was already struggling with high turnover and worker shortages before the policy changes. Nearly one in six CDL holders in the United States is foreign born.
The impact has been particularly severe in the Punjabi Sikh community, where approximately one-fifth of the U.S. Sikh population is involved in trucking, according to the North American Punjabi Trucking Association. One California-based Punjabi dispatcher who spoke anonymously said his company lost a third of its 31 drivers in the last quarter of 2025 due to CDL downgrades. Punjabi drivers went from making up 50% of his company’s workforce to 30% within months.
“Accidents can be caused by anyone, and it has been caused by many other nationalities,” the dispatcher said. “But we were brought out to be the one that’s like, ‘Hey, these immigrants don’t know how to drive.'”
Many displaced drivers are now working for rideshare and delivery apps at a fraction of their former trucking income. Community organizations including United Sikhs have stepped in to connect affected drivers with resources.
Raman Dhillon, CEO of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association, said the industry supports safety compliance and English-language requirements and acknowledges that systemic problems — such as fraudulent CDL schools — need to be addressed. But he said the drivers losing their licenses played by the rules.
“They did not get their licenses from a convenience store. They got it from the DMV, and they got the work permit from the federal government. How is it their fault at this point?” Dhillon said.
Stephen Burks, a former truck driver and trucking industry economist at the University of Minnesota Morris, described the policy as overly blunt. Shutting out all non-domiciled truckers, he said, was “like taking a sledgehammer when you need a scalpel.”
California’s Ongoing Crisis
California has been at the center of the conflict. In September 2025, a DOT audit found that more than 25% of California’s non-domiciled CDLs had been improperly issued, with many expiring later than the holders’ lawful presence documents. FMCSA threatened to withhold $160 million in federal highway funds if the state did not comply.
In November 2025, notices went out to approximately 17,000 non-domiciled CDL holders in California informing them their licenses did not meet federal requirements. In December, the Sikh Coalition and Asian Law Caucus filed a class-action lawsuit against the state, alleging the cancellations were unlawful. In March 2026, an Alameda County Superior Court ordered California’s DMV to allow affected drivers to re-apply for their CDLs. But the FMCSA rule prevents the DMV from processing those applications — leaving California caught between a state court order and a federal mandate. If California follows the state court order, the Trump administration could decertify the state’s entire CDL program, affecting all truck drivers in the state, not just affected immigrants. As of March 6, 2026, 13,000 non-domiciled CDLs had been cancelled in California.
For Sanchez, the policy debate has a human face. Five months after losing his CDL, he is still searching for work. His trucking experience does not translate easily to other industries.
“That was my career,” he said.
Interview courtesy of CNN.
📸 Image(s) used under fair use for news reporting.
