By Ahsan Ali
California is getting ready to cancel 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses after a state audit discovered they were issued to immigrants who are no longer legally allowed to stay in the United States.
The U.S. Department of Transportation stated that state officials acknowledged the licenses should not have been granted. The department said the state had given them to people it called “dangerous foreign drivers.” All affected drivers have been told their licenses will run out within 60 days.
This decision comes after a deadly collision in Florida last August, where a truck driver living in the country without legal permission caused a crash that killed three people. That tragedy led the Trump administration to push harder to stop undocumented immigrants from working in trucking or bus driving.
California Governor Gavin Newsom dismissed the federal government’s announcement, saying it was politically motivated.
For years, federal leaders have criticized California and other states that allow people without legal status to receive any type of driver’s license.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the audit results were only the beginning. “My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses,” he said.
Newsom’s office argued that many of the drivers included in the audit had been legally allowed to work by the federal government. However, media reports said the licenses listed the wrong expiration dates, which violated a state rule requiring commercial licenses to end when the driver’s legal U.S. status ends.
Newsom spokesman Brandon Richards sharply criticized Duffy, saying he was spreading false information. Richards also mocked Duffy’s past as a cast member on the MTV reality show “Road Rules.”
About a month after the Florida crash, Duffy introduced new federal rules making it harder for immigrants to get commercial licenses. The rules require states to check immigration status in a federal database and limit how long a license can remain valid to one year.
The Transportation Department estimated that 97 percent of “non-domiciled” drivers—about 194,000 people—would likely leave the trucking industry in the next few years. But because there are around 3.8 million commercial drivers nationwide, the department said the economic impact would be small.
This week, a federal appeals court temporarily stopped the new rules while a lawsuit filed by a truck driver moves through the courts.
Newsom’s office pointed out that none of these new rules were active when the 17,000 California licenses were originally issued.
At this point, California is the only state that has finished an audit of its commercial licenses. Other states are expected to release their results soon, although the process was slowed by the 43-day federal government shutdown that ended Wednesday.
California has more than 130,000 truck drivers, according to Fremont Contract Carriers. The state is home to the two largest shipping ports in the nation and is the country’s top producer of agricultural goods. Only Texas has more truck drivers overall.
Author Profile
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Ahsan Ali is a technology and business journalist who covers the latest developments in autonomous vehicles and innovative startups.
With a sharp eye for industry trends, he breaks down complex tech stories into clear, engaging insights for general readers.
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