State Missed Federal Deadline by Two Months
California just became $160 million poorer, and the fight is only getting started.
On January 8, 2026, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced it would withhold federal highway safety funds after the state failed to cancel over 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses held by immigrants.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration pushed the deadline back to March, but Washington refused to wait.
Two fatal crashes, a federal audit, and a class-action lawsuit later, the battle over who gets to drive an 80,000-pound truck has turned into one of the biggest standoffs between California and the Trump administration.
Federal Audit Found 1 in 4 Licenses Invalid
The trouble started with a nationwide review of how states issue commercial licenses to foreign-born drivers.
In California, federal investigators found that more than 25% of the non-domiciled CDL samples they reviewed were improperly issued.
Some licenses remained valid for years after a driver’s legal presence in the country had expired.
In one case, a Brazilian driver received a CDL with endorsements to operate a passenger bus and school bus that was valid months after his immigration status lapsed.
The audit described a “systemic collapse” of California’s licensing program, with errors in policy, staff training, and computer systems.
Duffy Says Its Reckoning Day for Newsom
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy did not hold back.
He called January 8 “reckoning day” for California and accused Governor Newsom of putting “the needs of illegal immigrants over the safety of the American people.”
Duffy said the state had been given 60 days to fix the problem and revoke the licenses, but California unilaterally extended its deadline to March.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator Derek Barrs added that the government would not accept a plan that “knowingly leaves thousands of drivers holding noncompliant licenses behind the wheel.
A Florida Crash Ignited the Crackdown
The federal pressure traces back to August 12, 2025, when a tractor-trailer made an illegal U-turn through an emergency-only access point on the Florida Turnpike near Fort Pierce.
The trailer jackknifed and slammed into a minivan, killing all three passengers instantly.
The victims were a 37-year-old woman from Pompano Beach, a 54-year-old man from Miami, and a 30-year-old driver from Florida City.
Video from inside the truck cab captured the moment the driver turned into oncoming traffic. Florida officials called the crash “shocking and criminal.
The Driver Got His License From California
The truck driver, 28-year-old Harjinder Singh, had entered the United States illegally in 2018 by crossing the border from Mexico.
He was detained by Border Patrol, released on bond, and later obtained a work permit while his asylum case proceeded.
California issued him a commercial driver’s license despite what federal officials say was no legal right to be in the country. Singh fled to California after the crash and was arrested in Stockton a few days later.
He now faces three counts of vehicular homicide in Florida, each carrying up to 15 years in prison. A petition calling for leniency gathered nearly 2.5 million signatures.
A Second Fatal Crash Near Los Angeles
Two months later, in October 2025, another collision involving an immigrant truck driver killed three people just outside Los Angeles.
Like the Florida crash, the driver was Sikh, and the incident drew immediate attention from federal investigators already focused on California’s licensing practices.
The back-to-back tragedies fueled the Trump administration’s argument that states were failing to vet drivers properly.
Transportation Secretary Duffy used both crashes to justify emergency rules restricting who could obtain a non-domiciled CDL and to demand immediate revocations of licenses the government deemed illegal.
California Already Lost $40 Million in October
This is not the first time California has lost federal money over trucking.
In October 2025, the Department of Transportation withheld $40 million from the state for refusing to enforce English language proficiency requirements for commercial drivers.
Federal law requires truckers to read and speak English well enough to understand road signs, communicate with law enforcement, and fill out reports.
California was the only state in the country that declined to enforce those rules.
The California Highway Patrol had publicly stated it had no intention of following the federal regulation, which Duffy called a “fundamental safety issue.
Immigrant Groups File Class-Action Lawsuit
In late December 2025, the Sikh Coalition and Asian Law Caucus filed a class-action lawsuit against the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
The groups argued that the state was canceling licenses for minor clerical errors, such as mismatched expiration dates between CDLs and work permits, rather than actual violations of law.
The lawsuit claimed that California sent notices to more than 20,000 drivers, many of whom had done nothing wrong.
Attorneys said the cancellations would cause “mass work stoppages” and devastate families who had built careers around trucking. A state court hearing could pause the revocations.
150,000 Sikhs Drive American Trucks
The crackdown has hit the Sikh community especially hard. An estimated 150,000 Sikhs work in the U.S. trucking industry, with about 40% of California’s truckers coming from Punjabi backgrounds.
Many arrived after fleeing violence in India following the 1984 attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, which killed thousands.
They settled in California’s Central Valley, first working in agriculture before filling trucking jobs as older drivers retired.
Over the past decade, Sikhs have built trucking schools, fleet companies, roadside restaurants, and even small gurdwaras at truck stops along major freight corridors.
The industry offered steady income, independence, and the ability to practice their faith without cutting their hair or beards.
Experts Warn of Supply Chain Crunch
Transportation analysts say the federal crackdown could ripple through the entire freight system.
One economist estimated that as many as 600,000 drivers could be removed from the road due to non-domiciled CDL restrictions and English proficiency enforcement combined.
The trucking industry already faces a shortage of between 60,000 and 80,000 drivers.
With immigrants accounting for roughly 20% of all truckers nationally, tighter rules could tighten capacity and push shipping costs higher.
Some freight experts predict peak truck utilization could hit by late 2026, creating conditions similar to the pandemic-era supply chain crisis.
New York Has Even Worse Numbers
California is not the only state in trouble. A federal audit of New York’s licensing program found that 53% of the non-domiciled CDL samples reviewed were issued illegally.
Investigators discovered that New York’s DMV systems defaulted to issuing eight-year licenses to foreign drivers, regardless of when their legal status expired.
In some cases, the state relied on expired immigration documents to grant commercial licenses.
Transportation Secretary Duffy demanded that New York revoke every illegally issued license and warned that federal funding could be withheld if the state failed to act within 30 days.
Penalties Could Double to $320 Million
Under federal law, if California continues to defy the Department of Transportation’s orders, the withheld amount could double in the second year.
That means the state could lose $320 million by 2027 if the standoff continues.
California’s DMV issued a statement saying it strongly disagrees with the funding decision and believes it is compliant with federal and state regulations.
The agency argued that withholding the money “jeopardizes public safety” because the funds are critical for maintaining highways.
For now, the 17,000 drivers remain in limbo, caught between a federal government demanding revocations and a state lawsuit that could keep them on the road a little longer.
This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.
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