Labrador Defends Rule Blocking Illegal Immigrants from Obtaining CDLs

BOISE, ID - Attorney General Raúl Labrador joined a coalition of states led by Florida in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, backing a federal rule that cracks down on states issuing commercial driver's licenses to illegal immigrants in violation of federal law. The brief was filed in Lujan v. FMCSA, defending a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rule that limits states to issuing CDLs to foreign-domiciled applicants only if they hold H-2A, H-2B, or E-2 visa status. Applicants for H-2A, H-2B, and E-2 status undergo screening by multiple federal agencies before receiving a visa, giving states a reliable way to identify unsafe drivers before handing them a CDL.

"States like California, New York, and Washington have skirted federal law to issue commercial driver's licenses to illegal immigrants who can't read English or our road signs, and families have paid for it with their lives," said Attorney General Labrador. "The Trump Administration is finally enforcing the law that blue states have ignored for years, and my office stands behind them. Idaho will not let liberal policies put unqualified drivers behind the wheel of eighteen-wheelers on our highways."

The Final Rule responds to a string of fatal crashes caused by illegally licensed truck drivers across the country. In Florida, an illegal immigrant who could not read English or road signs made an illegal U-turn across the Florida Turnpike with an eighteen-wheeler, killing three people. Similar tragedies played out in California, Tennessee, Indiana, and Oregon, where illegal immigrants holding CDLs issued by states like California, New York, and Pennsylvania caused fatal crashes that killed a combined total of more than a dozen people. The coalition's brief argues the rule is a lawful and necessary response after the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to let Florida sue California and Washington directly over their lax CDL enforcement.

The D.C. Circuit already denied a request to block the rule while litigation continues, finding the challengers were unlikely to succeed on the merits. Oral argument is scheduled for September 15, 2026.

Read the amicus here.