A group of immigrant truck and commercial vehicle drivers sued California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) on Tuesday, alleging the agency violated workers’ rights after planning to revoke thousands of unlawfully issued licenses.
The DMV notified drivers and business owners in November that thousands of commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) would be revoked beginning in early 2026, along with regular licenses, unless drivers complied with “new federal guidelines” requiring proof of U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent residency, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. By Dec. 10, however, the DMV began reversing course on issuing new licenses, ultimately stopping issuance altogether. Plaintiffs claim this move resulted from “pressure from the federal government.”
According to the lawsuit, filed on behalf of roughly 20,000 immigrant drivers and business owners living in California, the plaintiffs argue that administrative errors by the DMV have put thousands of drivers at risk of losing their CDLs and, consequently, their livelihoods.
“Plaintiffs have bought homes, cars, and trucks, relying on their ability to continue working a well-paying job that requires a CDL. Many drivers are the main or even sole providers for their families. The DMV’s actions will result in the loss of their hard-earned careers and impose severe financial and emotional hardships on the drivers and their families,” the lawsuit alleges.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy began calling out California in October for ignoring the Department of Transportation’s English-language requirements for truck drivers, threatening to pull $40 million in federal funds. The crackdown followed a major accident involving an illegal immigrant truck driver who received a CDL from the state and killed three people.
Indian national Harjinder Singh, who was unlawfully living in the U.S., was charged in August with three counts of vehicular homicide after three people died when he made an illegal U-turn on Florida’s Turnpike near Port St. Lucie. Singh failed an English Language Proficiency (ELP) assessment, providing only two correct responses out of 12 verbal questions and correctly identifying just one of four highway traffic signs, according to a DOT press release.
In addition to his failed ELP, officials revealed the Indian national illegally entered the U.S. in 2018 through the U.S.-Mexico border, later obtaining his CDL in California.
Following the tragic deaths, Duffy revealed in November that California’s DMV admitted to unlawfully issuing 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses to migrant drivers. That number has since grown to more than 20,000, according to ABC News.
The affected California drivers are being represented by the Sikh Coalition, a national civil rights group, and the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus, which are asking Alameda County Superior Court to pause the license cancellations.
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