The California Department of Vehicles will revoke about 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses-known as CDLs-issued to immigrant drivers who do not have permanent resident status in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy used the announcement of the cancellations to criticize California Governor Gavin Newsom, whom he accused of granting business licenses to undocumented persons.
CDL licenses in California to be revoked
California revokes 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses of immigrants https://t.co/aFcZuEaGTl
– CNN en Español (@CNNEE) November 14, 2025
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue to press California to prove that it has removed all undocumented immigrants from school buses and trucks,” Duffy said in a statement.
California has defended itself by asserting that all CDLs issued were issued to immigrants with federally issued work permits.
Tension between the White House and California over CDL licenses increased after a series of fatal accidents involving immigrant drivers, who only had work permits and have been deemed “illegal,” by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Duffy accused California of giving a license to Harjinder Singh, a native of India, arrested after he crashed on a Florida highway last August 12, when the truck he was driving made a U-turn in an unauthorized zone, killing three people.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles defended itself by saying that Singh had a work permit issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Secretary noted that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has required California to conduct a full audit of all of its nonresident commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) so that the agency can verify that all “illegally issued” licenses have been revoked and correct the deficiencies that allowed them to be issued.
Last October, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the withholding of more than $40 million from California following an investigation that found the state had failed to meet English language proficiency standards set for commercial drivers by the Trump Administration.
With information from EFE
