Immigrant truckers sue California DMV over CDL cancellation plans

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The California DMV is dealing with a lawsuit introduced on behalf of almost 20,000 immigrant truckers over the state's plans to revoke their industrial drivers' licenses (CDLs).

The Asian Regulation Caucus and the Sikh Coalition, together with the legislation agency Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in an effort to cease the California DMV from canceling the CDLs, which thecomplaint says would "end in mass work stoppages" beginning Jan 5, 2026.

"This class-action lawsuit is introduced on behalf of the Jakara Motion and 5 industrial drivers who've been disadvantaged of their rights and livelihoods," a joint assertion from the Asian Regulation Caucus and Sikh Coalition stated. "In keeping with experiences from the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED, California state officers communicated they'd start reissuing licenses on December 17. Regardless of these public assurances, the state has neither reissued any of the contested licenses nor created a course of to treatment the date situation with no indication that it plans to take action earlier than January 5."

The lawsuit alleges that on Nov. 6, the California DMV notified 17,299 immigrant drivers and enterprise homeowners that their non-domiciled CDLs can be canceled on Jan. 5, 2026, attributable to an error with the expiration date of the licenses. An identical letter was despatched to a further 2,700 drivers in December, informing them that their licenses can be canceled in mid-February.

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A truck departs from a Port of Oakland transport terminal on Nov. 10, 2021, in Oakland, Calif. (Noah Berger, File/AP Photograph)

The DMV is required to set the expiration date for a CDL given to an immigrant on both the identical day or earlier than the expiration of the driving force's work authorization or authorized presence paperwork, in accordance with the lawsuit. Nevertheless, the lawsuit alleges that the DMV letters violated California process, which might require the division to both cancel the license with out prejudice or change the expiration date.

"For all 19,999 immigrants, the DMV intends to cancel their industrial licenses with out affording any alternative to acquire a corrected license or to contest the cancellation," the lawsuit reads.

The submitting additional states that "regardless of its personal regulation, the DMV didn't persistently make sure that a CDL’s expiration date matched the top of an individual’s interval of labor authorization or lawful presence."

Individuals stroll by the rain on the Arleta DMV in Arleta on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/The Los Angeles Each day Information by way of Getty Pictures)

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In November, after a heated backwards and forwards between the federal authorities and California, the Division of Transportation (DOT) introduced that the Golden State was planning to revoke 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs. California Gov. Gavin Newsom 's workplace pushed again on the DOT's assertion that his state "admitted to illegally issuing" the licenses. Nevertheless, in accordance with the lawsuit, notices had been despatched to greater than the reported 17,000 drivers.

The lawsuit notes that the cancellation of the CDLs has a far-reaching affect past the drivers themselves, saying that the drivers "play an indispensable function in our native and nationwide economies, offering important companies that communities depend on daily, together with transporting meals, driving kids to high school and delivering manufactured items."

"The sudden lack of their capacity to work threatens not solely their livelihoods but additionally the steadiness of our provide chains and companies on which the general public relies upon. Neither the people nor our communities can maintain the hurt that can happen if these drivers lose their licenses, careers, and financial stability," the lawsuit reads.

California is transferring to revoke 17,000 industrial driver's licenses after stress from the Trump administration. (Fred Greaves/Reuters; Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters)

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The lawsuit describes among the plaintiffs' experiences after receiving the November letter. In a single occasion, a plaintiff recognized as John Doe 4 allegedly acquired the letter even though his CDL expires on the identical day as his work authorization, the very doc he supposedly used to resume the license. The lawsuit claims that there are recipients of cancellation letters whose CDLs are seemingly in compliance.

In one other occasion, a member of Jakara Motion — which describes itself as a "grassroots community-building group working to empower, educate, and arrange working-class Punjabi Sikhs, and different marginalized communities" — tried to deal with his issues in regards to the cancellation by going to a DMV workplace in particular person. The lawsuit claims that when the Jakara member arrived on the DMV workplace, he was "pressured into surrendering his CDL, out of worry that his non-commercial driver’s license would already be cancelled."

Additional, the lawsuit claims that the "DMV has not defined the way it recognized 19,999 licenses as out of compliance with state legislation and the way it can make sure that its determinations are correct."

In an aerial view, vans drive on Interstate 80 on Nov. 14, 2025, in Albany, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Pictures)

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The lawsuit is looking on the decide to situation a writ of mandate, preliminary injunction or everlasting injunction that will require the California DMV to make sure that the plaintiffs and people who fall beneath the category motion are in a position to receive a corrected CDL "with out interruption to their driving privileges."

The Trump administration launched a crackdown on the CDL issuing course of as a part of its efforts to deal with unlawful immigration. The transfer got here after a collection of deadly crashes involving non-domiciled CDL holders.