California’s Department of Motor Vehicles announced Tuesday that it would delay the cancellation of approximately 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses until March 6, a 60-day delay from the original January 5 deadline, which has Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy calling the governor a liar and threatening to yank $160 million in federal highway funding.
The DMV got itself into this mess by issuing CDLs whose expiration dates didn’t match work authorization expiration dates. That’s not a new federal rule problem. That’s a California screwed up problem.
The DMV justified its delay by arguing it needs more time to ensure it doesn’t wrongfully terminate licenses for drivers who actually qualify for them. That sounds reasonable until you remember that FMCSA’s August 2025 Annual Program Review found roughly 25% of California’s sampled non-domiciled CDL records failed to comply with federal regulations that existed long before the Trump administration’s September interim final rule ever hit the Federal Register.
Duffy didn’t mince words on X: “Gavin Newsom is lying. The deadline to revoke illegally issued, unvetted foreign trucker licenses is still January 5. California does NOT have an ‘extension’ to keep breaking the law and putting Americans at risk on the roads.”
The threat of lost federal dollars is real. Under 49 CFR 384.307, the FMCSA can withhold up to 4% of National Highway Performance Program and Surface Transportation Block Grant Program funds for noncompliance, roughly $160 million in California’s case. Continued defiance opens the door to additional 4% cuts compounding year after year.
The $160 million funding threat isn’t even Duffy’s biggest hammer. Under 49 U.S.C. 31312 and 49 CFR 384.405, FMCSA has the authority to fully decertify California’s CDL program if the state is found in “substantial noncompliance” with federal requirements. Decertification would prohibit California from issuing, renewing, transferring, or upgrading any commercial learner’s permits or commercial driver’s licenses, not just non-domiciled credentials, but every single one, until FMCSA determines the state has corrected its deficiencies. While previously issued CDLs would technically remain valid until their stated expiration dates, other states could refuse to recognize California credentials during the noncompliance period, and FMCSA could issue guidance declaring CDLs issued by a noncompliant state invalid for interstate commerce. The Commercial Driver’s License Information System, which enables interstate verification, could flag every California license. For the more than 700,000 CDL holders in the Golden State, decertification would effectively ground them from operating in interstate commerce, a supply chain catastrophe that would make the 2021 port backups look like a minor inconvenience.
Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit filed last week by the Asian Law Caucus, Sikh Coalition, and law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP seeks to halt the cancellations entirely. The suit was filed on behalf of five affected drivers and the Jakara Movement, arguing the DMV’s own administrative errors caused the expiration date mismatches and that California Vehicle Code Section 13100 requires cancellations to be “without prejudice,” meaning drivers should be able to reapply for corrected credentials immediately.
An estimated 150,000 Sikh truck drivers are operating in the United States, and the coalition contends many of the targeted drivers are being punished for what amount to clerical errors by the state.
“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,” the lawsuit states. The D.C. Circuit Court’s November 13 emergency stay of the FMCSA’s interim final rule addressed only the new restrictions on asylum seekers and other visa categories. It did nothing to resolve the pre-existing compliance failures that FMCSA documented during its audit, which found that CDLs were issued years beyond drivers’ lawful presence authorization and that licenses were granted to Mexican nationals who are prohibited from holding non-domiciled CDLs under existing reciprocity agreements.
California finds itself stuck between a federal government threatening to withhold funding and possible CDL program decertification on one side, and advocacy groups demanding that the state stop the cancellations on the other. The state announced on December 17 it would begin reissuing licenses, then reversed course on December 19 under federal pressure.
If California knew it had systemic programming errors that extended CDL expiration dates beyond work authorization periods, why didn’t it fix them before the feds came knocking?
That’s the part that should concern every carrier operating in interstate commerce. A CDL issued in violation of federal requirements may not be valid for interstate operation, meaning drivers holding those credentials could face enforcement action in any state, and carriers dispatching them could face significant liability exposure.
California has more than 700,000 CDL holders and is home to the nation’s largest trucking workforce with more than 138,000 truck drivers. What happens next will set the precedent for federal-state authority over commercial licensing for years to come.
