Migrant truckers sue California DMV over canceled commercial drivers licenses
The California DMV is facing a lawsuit brought on behalf of nearly 20,000 immigrant truckers over the state’s plans to revoke their commercial drivers’ licenses (CDLs).The Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition, along with the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in an effort to stop the California DMV from canceling the CDLs, which the complaint says would “result in mass work stoppages” starting Jan 5, 2026.“This class-action lawsuit is brought on behalf of the Jakara Movement and five commercial drivers who have been deprived of their rights and livelihoods,” a joint statement from the Asian Law Caucus and Sikh Coalition said.“According to reports from the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED, California state officials communicated they would begin reissuing licenses on December 17.
Despite these public assurances, the state has neither reissued any of the contested licenses nor created a process to remedy the date issue with no indication that it plans to do so before January 5.”The lawsuit alleges that on Nov.6, the California DMV notified 17,299 immigrant drivers and business owners that their non-domiciled CDLs would be canceled on Jan.
5, 2026, due to an error with the expiration date of the licenses.A similar letter was sent to an additional 2,700 drivers in December, informing them that their licenses would be canceled in mid-February.The DMV is required to set the expiration date for a CDL given to an immigrant on either the same day or before the expiration of the driver’s work authorization or legal presence documents, according to the lawsuit.However, the lawsuit alleges that the DMV letters violated California procedure, which would require the department to either cancel the license without prejudice or change the expiration date.“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 cancell...