The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is now at the center of a legal battle involving nearly 20,000 immigrant truck drivers, who are challenging the state’s decision to revoke their commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs).
On Tuesday, the Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition, supported by the legal expertise of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, initiated legal action to halt the DMV’s plans to cancel these licenses. The lawsuit contends that the revocations could trigger widespread work stoppages beginning January 5, 2026.
“This class-action lawsuit represents the Jakara Movement and five commercial drivers who find their rights and livelihoods under threat,” declared a joint statement from the Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition. “Despite reports from the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED that state officials promised to start reissuing licenses on December 17, no licenses have been reissued, nor has a corrective process been implemented, with no sign of action before the January deadline.”
The complaint highlights that on November 6, the DMV informed 17,299 immigrant drivers and business owners of the impending cancellation of their non-domiciled CDLs, set for January 5, 2026, due to an error in the licenses’ expiration dates. A similar notification was sent to an additional 2,700 drivers in December, advising them of a mid-February cancellation.
A truck departs from a Port of Oakland shipping terminal on November 10, 2021, in Oakland, California. (Noah Berger, File/AP Photo)
The lawsuit argues that the DMV is obligated to align the expiration date of a CDL issued to an immigrant with the expiration of the driver’s work authorization or legal presence documents. The lawsuit claims that the DMV’s actions are inconsistent with California’s procedural requirements, which should involve either canceling the license without prejudice or adjusting the expiration date accordingly.
“For all 19,999 immigrants, the DMV intends to cancel their commercial licenses without affording any opportunity to obtain a corrected license or to contest the cancellation,” the lawsuit reads.
The filing further states that “despite its own regulation, the DMV did not consistently ensure that a CDL’s expiration date matched the end of a person’s period of work authorization or lawful presence.”
People walk through the rain at the Arleta DMV in Arleta on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/The Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
In November, after a heated back and forth between the federal government and California, the Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that the Golden State was planning to revoke 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs. California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office pushed back on the DOT’s assertion that his state “admitted to illegally issuing” the licenses. However, according to the lawsuit, notices were sent to more than the reported 17,000 drivers.
The lawsuit notes that the cancellation of the CDLs has a far-reaching impact beyond the drivers themselves, saying that the drivers “play an indispensable role in our local and national economies, providing essential services that communities rely on every day, including transporting food, driving children to school and delivering manufactured goods.”
“The sudden loss of their ability to work threatens not only their livelihoods but also the stability of our supply chains and services on which the public depends. Neither the individuals nor our communities can sustain the harm that will occur if these drivers lose their licenses, careers, and economic stability,” the lawsuit reads.
California is moving to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses after pressure from the Trump administration. (Fred Greaves/Reuters; Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters)
The lawsuit describes some of the plaintiffs’ experiences after receiving the November letter. In one instance, a plaintiff identified as John Doe 4 allegedly received the letter despite the fact that his CDL expires on the same day as his work authorization, the very document he supposedly used to renew the license. The lawsuit claims that there are recipients of cancellation letters whose CDLs are seemingly in compliance.
In another instance, a member of Jakara Movement — which describes itself as a “grassroots community-building organization working to empower, educate, and organize working-class Punjabi Sikhs, and other marginalized communities” — attempted to address his concerns about the cancellation by going to a DMV office in person. The lawsuit claims that when the Jakara member arrived at the DMV office, he was “pressured into surrendering his CDL, out of fear that his non-commercial driver’s license would already be cancelled.”
Further, the lawsuit claims that the “DMV has not explained how it identified 19,999 licenses as out of compliance with state law and how it can ensure that its determinations are accurate.”
In an aerial view, trucks drive on Interstate 80 on Nov. 14, 2025, in Albany, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The lawsuit is calling on the judge to issue a writ of mandate, preliminary injunction or permanent injunction that would require the California DMV to ensure that the plaintiffs and those that fall under the class action are able to obtain a corrected CDL “without interruption to their driving privileges.”
The Trump administration launched a crackdown on the CDL issuing process as part of its efforts to tackle illegal immigration. The move came after a series of fatal crashes involving non-domiciled CDL holders.
The California DMV and Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
