Rivera Lujan v. FMCSA

On September 29, 2025, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued an a new regulation — styled as an interim final rule with immediate effect — that barred asylum seekers, refugees, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients with work authorization from holding commercial driver’s licenses. As a result, nearly 200,000 people currently working as commercial drivers will lose their licenses — and their livelihoods. These drivers include truck drivers, school bus drivers, delivery-van drivers, trash truck drivers. and others.

Representing DACA recipient Jorge Rivera Lujan, asylum seeker Aleksei Semenovskii, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Public Citizen filed a petition in the D.C. Circuit to challenge both the substance of the rule and FMCSA’s failure to follow rulemaking procedures required by law. On October 24, 2025, in light of the immediate harm caused by the rule, we filed an emergency motion to stay the rule while the litigation is ongoing. On November 13, D.C. Circuit stayed the interim final rule pending the outcome of the appeal. FMCSA then informed the court that it planned to issue a new final rule and asked the court to hold the case in abeyance pending the completion of the rulemaking. The court did so, leaving the stay in effect.

On February 11, 2026, FMCSA issued a new final rule that is substantively the same as the interim final rule. Representing the same clients, Pubic Citizen filed a a petition for review to challenge the new final rule.