A new federal rule restricting who can hold commercial driver’s licenses is sending ripple effects through parts of Maine’s transportation industry — and threatening to undo years of progress that some Greater Portland agencies have made to build a stable, diverse workforce.

The emergency order, issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration at the end of September, limits commercial driver’s license eligibility to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and noncitizens holding one of three specific visas.

For everyone else — including asylum seekers, participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and other immigrants who have work authorization but not those specific visas — the door to a CDL has effectively closed.

“It used to be that if you had eligibility to work in the state, you could obtain a CDL,” said Glenn Fenton, executive director of Greater Portland Metro. “Now the federal government has put forth these requirements, and it’s having a real impact.”

Fenton estimates that 160-200 people in Maine could lose their licenses as a result of the change, while hundreds more will be ineligible to apply for CDLs at all.

A lawsuit challenging the emergency order says the change could affect 200,000 workers nationwide. Earlier this week, the federal appeals court hearing the case temporarily paused implementation of the new restrictions, but a final decision could be months or even years away.

SENSE OF UNCERTAINTY

Greater Portland Metro, which operates bus service across the region, employs about 80 bus drivers. Ten of those workers were affected when the rule initially went into effect this fall. One has since obtained a green card, but the rest are still at risk of losing their commercial licenses.

“Those nine operators make up more than 10% of our workforce,” Fenton said.

Fenton said Metro has been in contact with the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which confirmed that existing licenses will remain valid until each driver’s renewal date. The renewal schedule stretches over the next four years, meaning some drivers could be affected as soon as early 2026, while others will be able to continue working longer.

Meanwhile, a DACA recipient, an asylum seeker and two large unions have sued the federal government over the changes, accusing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration of circumventing the normal rulemaking process. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in October, alleges that the Trump administration has failed to prove that the changes must be implemented on an emergency basis.

On Monday, two of the three federal circuit court judges in the case issued an administrative stay, effectively pausing the changes as the case continues.

For now, with that uncertainty surrounding the final outcome of the changes, Metro is trying to find other roles within the transit agency for its nine affected workers — even if they wind up no longer being able to drive commercial vehicles. Some positions at Metro do not require CDLs, but those roles pay less, Fenton said.

PIPELINE INTERUPTED

One of the most immediate impacts of the change has been the collapse of a successful recruitment program that Metro had built alongside Portland Adult Education, which helped connect newly arrived immigrants with training for commercial driving.

That program provided a clear path: Students studied for their CDL permit, learned the written material, then connected with Metro for hands-on training and job placement. It became a cornerstone of the transit agency’s hiring efforts.

“Before we had that program, we were chronically understaffed,” Fenton said. “Since it’s been in place, we’ve been able to fill all of our vacant spots, and we’ve been really happy with who we’ve hired through that.”

Abbie Yamamoto, executive director of Portland Adult Education, said that when the new federal rule came down, the school canceled its CDL classes for the fall.

“It has been devastating for some who had seen this as a frontal investment for a better wage and way of life,” Yamamoto said in an email Wednesday.

While Yamamoto is confident that the affected students will find other work and that the CDL class will return after some retooling, she says the change will still have a negative impact on Maine’s economy.

“It’s the institutions … and the larger economy that will suffer from a significantly reduced pool of willing and able applicants,” Yamamoto said.

Fenton echoed that, nothing that the steady flow of workers that Metro and Portland Adult Ed had worked together to build has been stymied.

“There will still be some folks coming through,” he said, “but not in the numbers they were before.”

Fenton said Metro plans to keep hiring through the program as long as applicants’ immigration statuses fit the new regulations. Noncitizens who hold H-2A visas for temporary agricultural workers, H-2B visas for seasonal nonagricultural workers or E-2 visas for treaty investors are still able to acquire CDLs, regardless of whether the rule is upheld by the courts.

“We’ll continue to hire anyone who’s eligible,” he said. “But I get the impression there will be fewer people coming through.”

City of Portland spokesperson Jessica Grondin said the change hasn’t yet impacted any commercial drivers employed by the city, such as snowplow and school bus drivers.

‘A MOVE IN THE WRONG DIRECTION’

Maine immigrant advocates say the impact of the rule extends to immigrants all over the state and will likely have a outsized impact on truck drivers.

Ruben Torres, policy and advocacy manager with the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, said the change imposes another hurdle for newly arrived immigrants trying to find work.

“Immigrants are here and taking positions to improve their communities and build a life for themselves,” Torres said. “With this policy change, you’re limiting folks from being able to contribute and stopping them from filling gaps in our workforce that are huge needs for our state.”

Torres said the coalition hopes to work with Maine lawmakers in the next legislative session to expand workforce training in other fields.

For Fenton, the change is frustrating. After years of workforce instability, Metro had finally achieved steady staffing levels — only to see that progress put at risk by a decision far beyond the agency’s control.

“It’s a move in the wrong direction when we had made some strides in the right direction,” he said.

Fenton said representatives from Metro recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to speak with congressional representatives about the change, but it became clear legislation may not be a feasible fix.

“It’s challenging because we’re a little bit helpless here in terms of affecting change,” he said.