A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from accessing state truck driver databases in an effort to identify and remove illegal migrants holding commercial driver’s licenses issued by certain states.
U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga issued an administrative stay on Monday, preventing the DHS from obtaining records of 17 million commercial truck drivers. The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by 21 Democrat-led states that argued the federal government lacks legal authority to access these databases without individual subpoenas for each record.
In his decision, Judge Trenga—appointed by President George W. Bush—ordered the DHS to return any records already obtained and cease further inspections of the data. The DHS sought the records after a series of deadly crashes linked to illegal migrants with commercial driver’s licenses.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy stated in a press conference: “We won’t compromise on road safety. Liberal states are suing [the U.S. Department of Transportation] to stop us from making sure our roads are safe. They are prioritizing illegal immigrant truckers over American citizens. We aren’t backing down.”
The ruling temporarily halts federal efforts to address a critical safety issue on U.S. roadways and underscores ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and state governments that have opposed federal law enforcement initiatives.
