California’s DMV Typo Could Cost 20,000 Truckers Their Licenses and America Its Supply Chain

Mass Unemployment Starts January 5

A single illegal U-turn on a Florida highway in August 2025 killed three people and set off a chain reaction that now threatens the livelihoods of more than 20,000 California truckers.

The drivers aren’t accused of doing anything wrong.

Their crime, according to the state, is having licenses with expiration dates that don’t match their federal work permits.

The California DMV sent cancellation notices in November, giving drivers 60 days to figure out their futures.

That deadline hits January 5, 2026, and what happens next could ripple through supply chains across the country.

A Fatal U-Turn on the Florida Turnpike

On August 12, 2025, Harjinder Singh attempted to make an illegal U-turn through an “Official Use Only” access point in St. Lucie County.

By blocking all lanes of the highway with his truck, Singh caused a brutal wreck, instantly killing three innocent people.

The victims were Herby Dufresne, 30, Faniola Joseph, 27, and Rodrigue Dor, 53, Haitian immigrants heading back to Indiana after visiting family in South Florida.

Singh obtained a Commercial Driver’s License in California, despite having no legal right to be in the United States.

The crash became national news within days.

Duffy Called California Disgusting

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy launched a nationwide audit of commercial driver licenses issued to immigrants.

The audit uncovered systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors in California’s non-domiciled CDL program.

More than one in four of the non-domiciled CDL records sampled in California failed to comply with federal regulations.

Duffy said California’s reckless disregard was “frankly disgusting and an affront to the millions of Americans who expect us to keep them safe.”

He gave the state 30 days to fix it or lose federal highway money.

New Rules Slash Eligible Immigrants

Under new federal requirements as of September 2025, eligibility for commercial driver’s licenses is now confined to holders of H-2A, H-2B, and E-2 visas, narrowing qualifying visa categories to temporary agricultural, temporary nonagricultural, and certain investment visas only.

This means that no CDLs will be renewed or issued for drivers without those visas, including asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients.

These changes will dramatically reduce the eligible pool for new noncitizen CDL applicants from about 200,000 to 10,000 in California.

Newsom and Duffy Trade Insults

The governor’s office fired back at the federal accusations.

Newsom spokesperson Brandon Richards said Duffy was “spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader.”

Newsom’s office said that every one of the drivers whose license is being revoked had valid work authorizations from the federal government.

California officials noted their commercial driver’s license holders had a fatal crash rate nearly 40% lower than the national average.

The back-and-forth went on for weeks.

Cancellation Notices Hit in November

Notices were issued to the 17,000 non-domiciled CDL holders that their license no longer meets federal requirements and will expire in 60 days.

The lawsuit follows 60-day cancellation notices sent by the DMV in November and December to drivers whose CDLs were flagged due to alleged mismatched expiration dates between state driver’s licenses and federal work authorization records.

The DMV acknowledged in correspondence with federal regulators that “shortcomings of its technical systems and processes” led to the mismatched dates.

The Number Keeps Climbing

California officials said last month that the state notified about 17,000 truckers that their commercial driver’s licenses would be revoked.

That number has since grown to 21,000. Advocates say more notices could still go out as the state continues its audit of license records.

The suit challenges the California DMV’s unlawful cancellation of more than 20,000 non-domiciled commercial drivers licenses due to minor clerical discrepancies.

Truckers Sue Days Before Deadline

Asian Law Caucus, Sikh Coalition, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP filed a class-action lawsuit against the State of California challenging the unlawful cancellation of 20,000 Commercial Driver’s Licenses.

The lawsuit seeks to halt the California DMV’s cancellation of commercial licenses that would result in mass work stoppages beginning January 5, 2026.

Munmeeth Kaur, legal director of the Sikh Coalition, said these drivers spent years anchoring their lives to these careers, only to now face potential economic ruin through no fault of their own.

California Has 61,000 Immigrant Truckers

Of the more than 720,000 trucking licenses that are active in California, about 8%, or roughly 61,000, belong to immigrants including refugees, asylum seekers, and those with DACA.

Now, under the new federal regulations released in September, nearly all of the 61,000 immigrants will lose their licenses in the coming months or years, for some as soon as January.

According to the North American Punjabi Trucking Association, about a quarter of Sikhs living in the United States work in the trucking industry.

Industry Already Short 80,000 Drivers

In 2025, industry estimates placed the truck driver gap at between 60,000 and 80,000 drivers.

Foreign-born drivers have been instrumental in addressing these labor gaps, accounting for nearly one in six U.S. truck drivers.

The shortage of truck drivers directly threatens the resilience of U.S. supply chains.

Trucks transport approximately 71% of goods by weight in the U.S. Losing tens of thousands more drivers could push shipping costs higher for everyone.

Feds Blocked California From Fixing It

California planned to reissue CDLs to immigrant drivers with updated, more accurate expiration dates on December 16th.

The federal government has instructed California to pause these plans.

Shane Gusman, legislative director for Teamsters California, said there’s absolutely no legitimate reason why the federal government stepped in and told them to hold off.

The 17,000 CDLs are currently scheduled to be officially revoked on Monday, January 5th, 2026.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• Feds Block California From Licensing Immigrant Truckers Despite Court Order
• Game Over for Trump’s National Guard Deployment in Los Angeles
• California Just Made It a Crime for Cops to Wear Masks on the Job