California Governor Gavin Newsom has backed down on federal enforcement of commercial driver’s license revocations, announcing a delay in the cancellation of 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) issued to immigrant drivers — now postponed until March 6, 2026.
The move comes only after immigrant advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit and secured a temporary reprieve against the state’s efforts to comply with federal safety and immigration rules.
The Gateway Pundit reported in November that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) had confessed to illegally handing out 17,000 non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) to dangerous foreign drivers who have no business operating massive semitrucks or school buses on American roads.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasted California for “illegally issuing 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses” to individuals whose credentials did not meet federal requirements, even threatening to withhold up to $160 million in federal highway funds if the state refused to act.
“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.”
Each of the 17,000 non-domiciled CDL holders has been issued notice that their license will expire within 60 days, as it no longer meets federal requirements.
FMCSA is now requiring the California DMV to hand over a full audit of all non-domiciled CDLs to verify that every unlawfully issued license is revoked and that the state corrects the systemic failures that allowed this fraud to occur.
Federal auditors found that over one in four foreign driver records sampled in California failed to comply with federal law, including CDLs that extended beyond the expiration of a foreign worker’s visa, a blatant violation of federal safety regulations.
Now, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) confirmed that the previously scheduled cancellation, originally set to begin in early January, will now be deferred while legal challenges play out in court.
This stunning reversal follows a wave of legal filings by organizations such as the Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition, who rushed to court arguing that the state’s actions threatened the livelihoods of thousands of “hard-working” immigrant truck drivers and bus operators.
Their lawsuit claimed that the DMV’s enforcement actions were unlawful and violated due process, alleging that drivers were not financially or legally equipped to respond to abrupt cancellation notices.
Newsom’s announcement provides additional breathing room for the state, which had been under immense pressure from the Trump Administration — and the U.S. Department of Transportation — to clean up a disastrous licensing program that federal auditors found had issued CDLs beyond the lawful terms of the drivers’ immigration status.
KTVB reported:
The Sikh Coalition, a national group defending the civil rights of Sikhs, and the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the California drivers. They said immigrant truck drivers were being unfairly targeted. The driver in the Florida crash and the driver in another fatal crash in California in October are both Sikhs.
Immigrants account for about 20% of all truck drivers, but these non-domiciled licenses immigrants can receive only represent about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses or about 200,000 drivers. The Transportation Department also proposed new restrictions that would severely limit which noncitizens could get a license, but a court put the new rules on hold.
Mumeeth Kaur, the legal director of the Sikh Coalition, said this delay “is an important step towards alleviating the immediate threat that these drivers are facing to their lives and livelihoods.”
It can be recalled that Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien truck driver, killed three Americans after he made an illegal U-turn on a Florida highway.
The Punjabi driver who obtained his truck driving license (CDL) in the Democrat-run sanctuary state of California made an insane U-turn on Florida’s Turnpike near Fort Pierce that caused the deadly crash.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revealed Singh failed English and couldn’t read road signs.
Another Indian illegal immigrant also faced three counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and reckless driving for allegedly causing a collision last month on the westbound 10 Freeway in San Bernardino County, California.
Jashanpreet Singh, 21, is accused of crashing a semi-truck into traffic, where three people were killed and four were injured.
Singh faced 17 years in prison, but that was downgraded to 10 after it was discovered he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, something authorities originally claimed.
In November, another criminal, an illegal alien semi-truck driver who obtained a CDL in California, killed two people in Bend, Oregon, after jackknifing the trailer.
The DHS said Rajinder Kumar was released into the interior of the US by the Biden Administration. He obtained a CDL by California Governor Gavin Newsom’s DMV.
“Rajinder Kumar, a criminal illegal alien from India, was released into our country under the Biden administration and issued a commercial driver’s license by Gavin Newsom’s Department of Motor Vehicles. How many more senseless tragedies must take place before sanctuary politicians stop allowing illegal aliens to dangerously operate semi-trucks on America’s roads?” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
The post INSANITY: Newsom’s California Delays Revoking 17,000 Commercial Driver’s Licenses Until March Following “Dangerous Foreign Drivers” Legal Challenge appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.