California Discovers Immigrants Must Be 'Legal,' Not Just Useful
The AP frames California's decision to revoke 17,000 commercial driver's licenses from immigrants as a sudden realization that the licenses 'went past when the drivers were legally allowed to be in the U.S.' Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (from the 2025 Trump administration, apparently) claims Governor Newsom was 'caught red-handed.' What the AP omits is how these licenses were issued,
maintained, and how much California's supply chain has relied on these very drivers for years. California's AB 60, passed in 2013, specifically allowed undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, acknowledging their critical role in the state's economy. The current move to revoke licenses after a high-profile accident, rather than when the initial 'illegal' period expired, highlights a
familiar pattern: immigrants are essential until they become politically inconvenient. It's fascinating how a 'discovery' can happen years after a policy's implementation, only when a Republican administration applies 'harsh criticism.' One might wonder if the sudden enforcement has more to do with shifting political winds than an epiphany about regulatory oversight. The 17,000 drivers just found
themselves on the wrong side of a convenient narrative, once again demonstrating that for some, the 'rule of law' is a selective application. We're left to assume California's state officials simply forgot about federal immigration timelines for, oh, roughly a decade.