OLYMPIA, WA – Washington state mistakenly issued nearly 700 licenses to drive trucks and buses to noncitizens who don’t qualify over the past seven years.
This issue has drawn heavy criticism from the Trump administration and others after a semitruck driver, Harjinder Singh, allegedly made an illegal U-turn and killed three people in Florida. Singh wrongfully received a standard commercial driver’s license from Washington state, the state Department of Licensing concluded.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has since threatened to withhold federal highway funding from states that issue these licenses to immigrants who don’t qualify. He has also tried to restrict who qualifies for commercial licenses, a move that is being litigated.
The growing attention led Washington’s licensing department to discover 685 other errors of the same kind over the course of seven years. All of those licenses were active when the mistakes were found. That figure doesn’t account for errors with credentials that had already lapsed.
A U.S. Department of Transportation spokesperson said Washington’s “failure to follow federal law is a blatant breakdown in its responsibility to protect the public.”
“By handing out standard CDLs to drivers who were never eligible, Washington sent unsafe foreign drivers onto highways across America and put countless families in danger,” the spokesperson said in an email. “This is exactly the kind of negligence Secretary Duffy is working to eliminate. Following the law is not optional.”
Washington Department of Licensing spokesperson Nathan Olson said in an email that the “Errors have been addressed, and DOL is working to make changes in our system, process, procedures, and training to prevent mis-issuances in the future.”
Singh and others should have received what is called a non-domiciled commercial driver’s license, meant for noncitizens with valid work authorization. Citizens and lawful permanent residents get standard licenses, which is what Singh received.
Standard licenses expire at the same time as the driver’s regular driving credential, while non-domiciled ones lapse when their work authorization expires. It’s unclear how many of the 685 drivers in Washington were issued commercial licenses that went beyond their work authorization due to the mistake, Olson said.
The state submitted its investigation into its mistakes to the federal government last month.
Before the Florida crash, Singh also wrongfully received a credential from California. Because of this, his Washington license was invalid at the time of the crash this year, Olson said.
Earlier this year, Duffy launched a nationwide audit of the states that issue these non-domiciled licenses to immigrants. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order that says truckers without English proficiency should be kept off the roads.
Duffy has pushed new rules limiting the types of visas that allow noncitizens to qualify for trucking licenses. Only those with H-2A, H-2B or E-2 visas would be allowed to get credentials. These visas make up just 10,000 of the 200,000 noncitizen license holders.
King County, where Seattle is located, asked a Washington, D.C., appeals court to review the policy shift, noting it would cost the county’s bus fleet some drivers. In response, the court last month temporarily halted these restrictions.
Also last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced the state was revoking 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses issued to immigrants because the licenses had expiration dates later than the drivers were allowed to remain in the country.
In Washington, the 685 license holders at issue have been given a chance to update their legal status if, for example, they’ve since received their green cards. It’s unclear how many credentials the state has revoked.
The state licensing department has stopped processing all non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses and learner permits.
Last week, Duffy said one-third of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses issued in Minnesota were illegal. He gave Minnesota an ultimatum: Get in compliance within 30 days or risk losing $30 million in federal highway funding. In November, Duffy threatened nearly $75 million earmarked for Pennsylvania for similar problems.
Washington faces ire from another direction. After the fatal crash in August, Florida’s attorney general moved to sue Washington and California at the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking a permanent ban on both states issuing commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens. Washington has until Jan. 27 to respond to Florida’s filing.
This story first appeared on Washington State Standard.
