About 900 people legally living and working in Oregon can no longer renew their commercial driver's licenses or learner's permits,

The fallout is rippling through the Portland-Hillsboro metro area's immigrant workforce, according to Hillsboro News-Times.

A Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rule that took effect Monday, March 16, bars states from issuing temporary CDLs to most non-citizens.

Only holders of H-2A, H-2B, and E-2 visas remain eligible. States that don't comply risk losing federal transportation funding.

The metro area's foreign-born population stood at 12.7% between 2020 and 2024, according to U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data.

Commercial driving has long drawn immigrants and refugees because it offers high pay without a college degree and quick entry after training, according to staff at the Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization, a Portland-based nonprofit.

A driving school owner watches enrollment collapse

Abdul Saboor Hassan moved to Oregon in 2020 after earning a green card for his service to the U.S. Army in Afghanistan.

He drove trucks commercially, became an instructor, then opened his own commercial driving school in Portland in 2024.

When the school opened, about 70% of Hassan's students came from immigrant and refugee backgrounds. By spring 2025, that share had dropped to 25%, he told the Hillsboro News-Times.

The decline came as the Trump administration enforced stricter English-proficiency requirements and began cracking down on states issuing temporary CDLs, even before the March 2026 rule formalized the ban.

Hassan still operates his school, but he can only serve immigrants who have obtained citizenship or a green card.

"I know a lot of people are interested and they would like to have a commercial driver's license, but they cannot take my class because they are not allowed," Hassan said.

Trucks repossessed, families displaced

Commercial driving training is the top service requested by men seeking career help at the Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization, according to workforce development manager Josie Majuri.

Theresa Park, the organization's WorkSource site manager, said many clients who were about to start CDL training or finishing it had to switch career paths after the rule took effect.

Many turned to rideshare driving, warehouse work, and assembly line jobs.

Some clients had invested their savings in trucks, planning to launch their own businesses. Park said some of those trucks are being repossessed, some families are selling homes or leaving apartments, and some are turning to food pantries.

National scope

Nationally, 18% of truckers are foreign-born, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

The FMCSA estimates the rule will reduce non-domiciled CDL holders from roughly 200,000 to about 6,000 over the next few years. Existing drivers with valid licenses may continue until their current CDL expires.

Oregon began issuing non-domiciled CDLs in 2010, according to Chris Crabb, a spokesperson for Oregon's Driver and Motor Vehicle Services division.

The program paused between 2015 and 2017 and again in late 2025 as the state worked to meet federal standards. Crabb said the state is unaware of evidence that drivers with limited-term CDLs are less safe than other commercial drivers.

Not everyone in the industry opposes the change. Oregon Trucking Association President and CEO Jana Jarvis said she supports the federal rule, adding that demand for truck drivers isn't as high as it was during the pandemic.

The FMCSA's final rule replaced an earlier emergency interim rule from September 2025 that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had stayed. A new legal challenge was filed in February 2026, but the current status of that litigation has not been confirmed.

Park put the local cost plainly: "It's frustrating because some of these folks had jobs lined up. We have people to do the jobs, but they're not allowed to do it."