Chinese American Truckers Association suing FMCSA over non-domiciled CDL enforcement

The Chinese American Truckers Association is suing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration over enforcement of the non-domiciled Commercial drivers license rules. 

The Chinese American Truckers Association filed the suit in California federal court on Wednesday, January 7th. The suit alleges that the FMCSA’s enforcement of non-domiciled CDL rules has caused the California Department of Motor Vehicles to indefinitely freeze processing any and all non-domiciled CDLs. The suit says that this freeze has hurt otherwise eligible immigrant drivers with proper documentation, lawful immigration status, and work authorization. 

The suit claims that the freeze has led to “an open-ended suspension for affected drivers and associated small businesses (including driver training programs), with no date-certain mechanism for otherwise-qualified individuals to obtain timely individualized adjudication before their licenses expire.”

The CATA says that the whole process has denied their members due process. 

A proposed class action lawsuit against the California DMV has already been proposed by the Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition, alleging that the non-domiciled rule enforcement has put “eligible drivers in the cold without any resolution.”