California officials were grilled by a federal appeals court panel on Friday over their fight against the Trump administration for federal funding that the administration withheld due to a dispute over the expiration date of commercial driver’s license standards for noncitizens.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard arguments from lawyers representing the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the U.S. Department of Transportation, grilling both sides during the nearly two-hour hearing. The Transportation Department under the Trump administration has pursued a high-profile crackdown on CDLs for noncitizens after multiple fatal crashes involving noncitizens who were granted licenses despite not meeting federal standards.
The California DMV filed the petition for review to the D.C. Circuit earlier this year after the Transportation Department announced in January that it would withhold $160 million in federal funding to the Golden State because it failed to cancel CDLs that the federal government said were not in compliance with federal law. The dispute centers on CDLs issued to noncitizens that have expiration dates beyond the duration of the immigrants’ legal work authorization.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s “final determination cites just one basis for its decision to withhold $160 million of highway funding from California: that DMV had not canceled approximately 20,000 licenses with expiration dates that exceeded the date on the driver’s legal presence documentation, but no federal law required those cancelations,” California Deputy Attorney General Kristen Kido argued before the panel. “All of the licenses at issue complied with federal law.”
The panel of judges grilled California officials who denied that they had agreed to a Jan. 5 timeline to cancel the CDLs the Trump administration identified, insisting that they were still cooperating with the administration’s new rules for CDLs to maintain certification.
Justice Department lawyers argued before the panel that the decision to withhold federal funds was made because the audit conducted by the DOT “revealed a number of systemic issues, issues that pervaded the process by which the California DMV issues commercial driver’s licenses.”
The three-judge panel included U.S. Circuit Judges Cornelia Pillard, a nominee of former President Barack Obama; Brad Garcia, a nominee of former President Joe Biden; and Douglas Ginsburg, a nominee of former President Ronald Reagan.
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The judges did indicate how they would rule and did not set a timeline for when they would issue a ruling.
Commercial driver’s licenses for noncitizens have been a hot-button issue for the Trump DOT and Republican states that have taken aim at lax standards in blue states such as California. Florida officials unsuccessfully attempted to sue California and Washington officials over their issuance of commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants in violation of federal law. The Supreme Court, which holds exclusive jurisdiction to hear lawsuits between states, declined to hear the case earlier this year.