The Trump administration has released new rules making Compact of Free Association citizens, in addition to other immigrant classes, ineligible for commercial driver’s licenses, starting this past Monday.
The new regulations are ill-thought, spelling trouble for both Hawaiʻi and COFA citizens alike in the midst of commercial driver’s licenses driver shortages while also violating promises under the mutual agreements with the three Freely Associated States.
CDLs, necessary for numerous jobs that involve driving heavy vehicles like trucks or buses, come in two kinds: standard CDLs for U.S. citizens, and non-domicile CDLs, licenses available for non-citizens.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration under Trump has indicated its intention to limit who can obtain non-domicile CDLs to specific visa classes, regulations which came into effect on March 16. These exceptions exclude citizens from the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau living in the U.S. under the Compacts of Free Association.
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The decision behind the change was purportedly made to improve safety by limiting CDLs to those “subject to enhanced consular vetting of driver history and interagency screening.”
Current estimates suggest 200,000 CDL drivers could be affected. In response to the proposed changes, the three Freely-Associated States’ embassies released public comments arguing that COFA citizens are legally granted the right to work in the US. Despite this, the FMCSA refused to create any exception for COFA citizens, instead advising individual states to apply for 5-year exemptions for them, referring to one exemption already in place in Oregon.
The effect that this rule has is unfairly debilitating to the livelihoods of numerous COFA citizens. One of the authors of this editorial runs the I94 Group, a Facebook community group of over 9,500 COFA citizens.
Confusion around the new CDL rule has circulated throughout the chat, with numerous COFA citizens reaching out that they have received letters from their state’s DMVs letting them know that their CDL will be revoked, will not be able to be renewed, or will be downgraded to provide lower credentials.
(U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration).
While there is little data on the exact number of COFA citizens with commercial driver’s licenses, FMCSA data points to around 7,600 Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian CDL drivers in the U.S. in 2023, with a sizable portion likely being COFA citizens.
For these COFA citizens, the impact can be devastating: having to lose one’s commercial driver’s license means difficult hardship in supporting one’s family, being forced to find a new job in a different field, and learning new skills, almost like they are starting over in their career. With few legal representatives advocating for them, the situation feels confusing and hopeless for COFA citizens, especially after being promised the right to work in the U.S. under the COFA agreements.
For COFA citizens, the impact can be devastating.
The new regulations will also have devastating effects on Hawaiʻi and the rest of the nation, which have in the past few years have struggled with CDL driver shortages. Hawaiʻi’s driver shortage began during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to supply chain disruptions and impacts on various industries.
The most notable impact was on bus routes last year, with 147 routes suspended across Oʻahu, Maui and Hawaiʻi islands. The routes were only restored because of the less-than-ideal easing of regulations on employment training and use of non-school vehicles to transport students.
The loss of many more CDL drivers over the next few years threatens to worsen the current shortage. Hawaiʻi’s shortage is not unique: there’s an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 shortage in drivers across the country, lessening the likelihood of other drivers coming to Hawai‘i to fill the gap.
All hope is not lost, however. Hawai‘i is the only state with an active application for exemption for COFA citizens waiting for response. However, the application was submitted in late 2024 and has still not received any response from the FMCSA.
Despite the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation’s intentions to follow up on this application, the new regulations have already begun. Even if accepted, the exemption would only last for five years, establishing a running and repeating clock on COFA access, which fails to ensure confidence in prospective CDL drivers that the time and training required to receive a commercial driver’s license will be a sustainable investment.
(U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration).
As such, the last hope is that a legislative solution might be attained at the federal level, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau indicated he would engage with relevant authorities to explore possible resolutions after a request from FSM President Wesley Simina.
However, COFA history does not bode well for a timely resolution. When COFA citizens lost access to Medicaid in 1996, it took nearly 25 years for the benefit to be restored finally during the Covid pandemic. Other lost benefits, including access to food stamps, were only restored with the newest Compacts of Free Association in 2024.
To see a solution that prevents COFA citizens, and the state of Hawai‘i, from being negatively affected, it will take coordinated and consistent advocacy from our congresspeople, state, unions and other nongovernmental institutions to ensure that COFA citizens’ contributions to our already strained economy and their own families are not blocked by government overreach and unnecessary red tape.
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