California’s Department of Motor Vehicles said it will delay the anticipated cancellation of roughly 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses by 60 days, moving the date to March 6, 2026, after immigrant-rights groups sued to halt the action. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy responded that the federal January 5 compliance deadline has not changed and warned that California could lose up to $160 million in federal funds.
California’s Department of Motor Vehicles said it has extended the anticipated cancellation date for approximately 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) by 60 days, pushing the date from January 5, 2026, to March 6, 2026, while it works with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to address federal concerns about the state’s licensing process.
The delay came after immigrant-rights organizations—including the Sikh Coalition and the Asian Law Caucus—filed a class-action lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court challenging the state’s plan to cancel CDLs that drivers received after the DMV flagged alleged mismatches between license expiration dates and federal work-authorization records. The groups said tens of thousands of drivers received cancellation notices in November and December and argued that the planned cancellations risked wrongly stripping licenses from people who remain legally eligible to work and drive.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy disputed the notion that California has any federal reprieve. In a Dec. 31 post on X, Duffy accused Gov. Gavin Newsom of “lying” and said the deadline to revoke “illegally issued” licenses remains January 5, adding that the Department of Transportation could act “including cutting nearly $160 million” in federal funding if California misses the deadline.
The clash follows broader federal scrutiny of California’s commercial-driver oversight. The U.S. Department of Transportation and FMCSA have cited compliance issues involving non-domiciled CDLs, and the federal government has separately withheld more than $40 million in Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program funding from California over the state’s handling of federal English-language proficiency requirements for commercial drivers.
Federal officials and some trucking-industry groups have argued that tighter verification and enforcement are needed to ensure road safety, particularly after a deadly crash on Florida’s Turnpike in August 2025 involving a semi-truck that made an illegal U-turn and killed three people. Immigrant advocates, meanwhile, say the DMV’s process and the federal pressure campaign have created confusion and could unlawfully sideline legally authorized drivers.
In its announcement, the California DMV said the extension is intended to allow time to resolve federal concerns and avoid wrongful cancellations, while keeping affected drivers licensed during the interim period. The agency said it is working with FMCSA to restore federal confidence in its updated procedures before the new March 6 date.
