WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal appeals court has halted the Transportation Department’s newly announced restrictions that would sharply limit which immigrants are eligible to obtain commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), ruling that the agency failed to follow proper procedure and did not justify the safety need for the policy.

According to ABC News, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued the stay Thursday, temporarily blocking Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s rule from taking effect. The rule was announced in September, one month after a truck driver not authorized to be in the U.S. allegedly made an illegal U-turn in Florida and caused a crash that killed three people.

In its ruling, the court said the administration skipped key steps in the rulemaking process and failed to “articulate a satisfactory explanation for how the rule would promote safety.” The judges noted that FMCSA’s own data shows immigrants hold about 5% of all CDLs but account for only 0.2% of fatal crashes — undercutting the safety justification for the policy.

The blocked rule would have limited CDLs to immigrants holding only three types of visas (H-2A, H-2B, or E-2), drastically reducing eligibility from roughly 200,000 drivers to only 10,000. States would also be required to verify immigration status through a federal database, and licenses would expire after one year or when a visa expires — whichever came first.

The ruling comes the same week California revoked 17,000 CDLs after a federal audit showed many were issued with expiration dates extending beyond drivers’ legal presence in the U.S. Duffy has repeatedly criticized California, and he has already revoked $40 million in federal highway safety funding from the state over English-language enforcement issues. He has threatened to withhold another $160 million if California fails to address the licensing concerns.

Supporters of the blocked rule — including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association — say tighter oversight is needed to ensure only qualified drivers operate heavy trucks. Critics argue the restrictions are overly broad, discriminatory, and unsupported by safety data.

Meanwhile, the Florida driver at the center of the political fallout, Harjinder Singh, appeared in court Thursday in St. Lucie County. Singh has pleaded not guilty to three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of manslaughter. His defense team requested more time to prepare for trial.

The court’s stay keeps the existing CDL eligibility rules in place while the legal review continues.

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