DOT: California revokes 17K illegally issued commercial licenses

By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer

California has revoked thousands of driver’s licenses that were illegally issued, the U.S. Department of Transportation said on Wednesday. The action was taken following an order imposed by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy several weeks ago, officials announced. 

The California Department of Motor Vehicles had issued 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses to “dangerous foreign drivers” in violation of federal rules and is now revoking them, the DOT said. 

Duffy said that the revocations are “just the tip of the iceberg” and that his “team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.” 

Notices were issued to the 17,000 CDL holders stipulating that their licenses will expire in 60 days, according to the statement from the DOT, which said California officials were “caught red-handed.” 

Duffy also reiterated a threat to pull $160 million in federal funding from California if it does not revoke all CDLs that were issued in violation of federal rules. 

Last month, the agency said it would withhold $40 million from California after it found that the state allegedly hadn’t complied with the U.S. Transportation Department’s English Language Proficiency requirements in issuing the commercial licenses. 

In August, Duffy first said that California, Washington and New Mexico would lose funding in light of a fatal crash in Florida. It was revealed that the driver in the crash, Harjinder Singh, was unable to speak English and had received a nondomiciled CDL from the state of California and a full CDL from Washington state, the agency said. 

New Mexico State Police had issued the driver a speeding ticket but had failed to perform an ELP test, the DOT said. 

Three people died when truck driver Singh made an illegal U-turn on a highway about 50 miles north of West Palm Beach and a minivan slammed into his trailer, according to Florida’s Highway Patrol. Singh and his passenger were not injured. 

Singh pleaded not guilty in September to three state counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations. A previous request for comment from his attorney was not returned. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has not yet responded to a request for comment on Wednesday. The state of California has not publicly responded to the Transportation Department’s announcement. 

Responding to Duffy’s criticism about California’s issuance of CDLs to illegal immigrants, Newsom’s office said in a post on X last month that “California commercial driver’s license holders had a fatal crash rate” nearly 40% lower than the national average. 

“California does require ELP and tests for it as a condition of receiving a CDL, and you can read that for yourself right here,” the post reads. 

Duffy told Fox News in September that California had unlawfully issued tens of thousands of CDL licenses to noncitizens. 

“So you have 60,000 people on the roads who shouldn’t have licenses,” he said. “They’re driving fuel tankers, they’re driving school buses, and we have seen some of the crashes on American roadways that come from these people who shouldn’t have these licenses.” 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a post on X on Aug. 21 that his department would pause issuing new worker visas for commercial truck drivers, adding, “The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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