The Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration has rescinded a previously announced decision to require over 250 undocumented immigrants to provide evidence of citizenship or permanent residency that would enable them to keep their commercial driver’s licenses.
Having work permits and temporary protected status will be enough for the immigrant drivers to keep working, the agency announced in a written statement this week, The Washington Post reports.
In August, the government office had previously informed 263 license holders that they had 30 days to show proof of citizenship or permanent residency or else the CDLs would be cancelled.
The majority of the affected CDL holders are party to the Department of Homeland Security’s “Temporary Protected Status” program, which grants work licenses to individuals escaping from war or environmental crises in their home countries.
The letters had stirred up dismay amongst the CDL holders, many of whom had invested thousands of dollars in equipment and training programs, or else founded their own trucking businesses.
Immigrant rights groups and politicians had called for a decision reversal, which the agency finally accepted to do this week.
Driver spokeswoman and delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez believes the state should apologize to the immigrant CDL holders for the stress they had undergone as a result of the original announcement.