Body

California said Tuesday it will delay revoking about 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses until March, a move that comes a week after immigrant groups filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s planned revocations.

The decision follows pressure from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who said the state could lose $160 million if it does not meet a Jan. 5 deadline to revoke the licenses. Duffy said he had already withheld $40 million in federal funding because he said California was not enforcing English proficiency requirements for truckers.

California officials said they sent out notices invalidating the licenses only after Duffy pressed the state to ensure immigrants who are in the country illegally do not receive licenses. The reporting also said federal audits found problems in the existing rules, including licenses that remained valid long after an immigrant’s authorization to be in the country had expired, as well as licenses in which the state could not prove it checked a driver’s immigration status.

Duffy also connected the federal push to safety concerns, citing an August Florida crash in which a truck driver who was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash that killed three people. In a post on the X platform, Duffy said, “California does NOT have an ‘extension’ to keep breaking the law and putting Americans at risk on the roads.”

The lawsuit was filed as a class action by the Sikh Coalition, a national group that defends the civil rights of Sikhs, and the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus. The groups said immigrant truck drivers were being unfairly targeted, and the reporting said the driver involved in the Florida crash and another driver involved in a fatal crash in California in October are both Sikhs.

California officials said they were working to make sure the federal Transportation Department is satisfied with reforms the state has put in place, after a prior plan to resume issuing commercial driver’s licenses in mid-December was blocked by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The reporting said DMV Director Steve Gordon described commercial drivers as important to the economy and to keeping communities connected, saying, “Commercial drivers are an important part of our economy — our supply chains don’t move, and our communities don’t stay connected without them.”

The reporting also said immigrants account for about 20% of all truck drivers, but that non-domiciled licenses immigrants can receive represent about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses, or about 200,000 drivers. It added that the Transportation Department had proposed restrictions that would have limited which noncitizens could get a license, but that a court put those new rules on hold.

In comments through the litigation, the Sikh Coalition’s legal director, Mumeeth Kaur, said the delay was important for the drivers affected by the revocations, calling it “an important step towards alleviating the immediate threat that these drivers are facing to their lives and livelihoods.”

Duffy previously threatened to withhold millions of dollars from California, Pennsylvania and Minnesota after audits found significant problems under the existing rules, including licenses remaining valid beyond an immigrant’s work authorization expiration. The reporting said he dropped the threat to withhold $160 million from California after the state said it would revoke the licenses while complying with federal demands.

As part of the broader push, trucking trade groups praised efforts to remove unqualified drivers from the road and applauded the Transportation Department’s moves to go after questionable commercial driver’s license schools.

related_stories:

  • slug: 2025-12-31-california-delays-revocation-of-17-000-commercial-licenses-after-migrant-lawsuit headline: California delays revocation of 17,000 commercial licenses after migrant lawsuit publish_date: 2025-12-31 relation: related strength: 0.9611
  • slug: 2025-12-31-california-delays-17-000-cdl-revocations-to-march-federal-funds-at-risk headline: California delays 17,000 CDL revocations to March; federal funds at risk publish_date: 2025-12-31 relation: related strength: 0.9423
  • slug: 2026-01-07-california-loses-160m-in-federal-funds-over-delay-in-revoking-immigrant-trucking headline: California loses $160M in federal funds over delay in revoking immigrant trucking licenses publish_date: 2026-01-07 relation: related strength: 0.9305
  • slug: 2026-01-08-north-carolina-faces-50m-funding-loss-over-flawed-immigrant-trucker-licenses headline: North Carolina faces $50M funding loss over flawed immigrant trucker licenses publish_date: 2026-01-08 relation: related strength: 0.9013