New federal regulations could leave California with fewer truck drivers, as the Trump administration bans certain immigrants from operating large vehicles.

With fewer truck driv.. consumers may see higher shipping costs, too.

Following an Executive Order from President Trump in April US transportation Secretary Sean Duffy began cracking down on truck drivers by creating new regulations that prevent refugees, asylum seekers and those with DACA from holding commercial trucking licenses.

The administration is also increasing enforcement to penalize those who have limited English proficiency.

We pulled $40 million from the state of California because they were refusing to comply with our English proficiency language requirements.

California, um is, uh, less than cooperative, and we're in the process of going through a review and, we have the opportunity to pull $160 million of additional dollars from the state of California.

California is the main target of both actions, sparking a feud between Duffy and Governor Gavin Newsom.

Until recently, the federal government allowed states to issue trucking licenses to non-citizen immigrants, which include refugees, asylum seekers and those with DACA.

Of the more than 720,000 trucking licenses that are active in California, about 8% or roughly 61,000 belong to this class of immigrants.

Duffy said the new regulations for immigrant drivers are an effort to save lives.

But in publishing the new regulations on immigrant truck drivers, Duffy's transportation department acknowledged that there is insufficient evidence to prove that certain kinds of immigrants drive more dangerously than other drivers.

Instead, the department justified the regulations by citing a number of high profile crashes involving truck drivers who allegedly lack legal status, including a fiery crash on the I-10 in Ontario in October.

For CalMatters, I'm Adam Echelman.