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Sikh truck drivers sue California over mass commercial license cancellations

Story by Bob Egelko
• 7h • 3 min read

Sikh truck drivers sue California over mass commercial license cancellations



Joey Atwal works at Diamond Transportation Logistics Inc. facility in Stockton on Dec. 15, 2025. The company could lose a portion of its drivers if the state moves ahead with pressure from the Trump administration to revoke thousands of immigrants' commercial drivers licenses. (Benjamin Fanjoy/For the S.F. Chronicle)

Immigrant drivers of trucks and other commercial vehicles in California sued the state on Tuesday for cancelling about 20,000 licenses, saying officials bowed to pressure from the Trump administration and violated state laws allowing renewal of the licenses.
The Department of Motor Vehicles notified the drivers and business owners last month that it would revoke their commercial licenses in January, as well as their regular driver's licenses, unless they complied with "new federal guidelines" such as proof of U.S. citizenship or legal permanent residence.

The DMV changed course on Dec. 10 and told the federal government it would start issuing new licenses in a week, but reversed its position last Friday "under pressure from the federal government," said the suit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court.
According to the suit, the DMV notified the drivers that the expiration dates for their licenses had already passed - but that was due to the state agency's own errors, and the DMV is required by law to allow the drivers to reapply, or to change the expiration dates on its own, said attorney David Singh.
The immigrants "have bought homes, cars and trucks, relying on their ability to to continue working a well-paying job that requires a CDL (commercial driver's license)," Singh wrote in the lawsuit, which seeks a court order reinstating the licenses.
"Many drivers are the main or even sole providers for their families. The DMV's actions will result in the loss of their hard-earned careers and impose severe financial and emotional hardships on the drivers and their families."

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Plaintiffs include bus drivers, a tow truck company owner and the Jakara Movement, whose members include hundreds of immigrant drivers. They are represented by the Sikh Coalition and the Asian Law Caucus.
The federal rollback was part of President Donald Trump's push to exclude and deport asylum-seekers, undocumented immigrants who fear persecution in their home countries, and deny government benefits to them while they are in the United States.
The DMV declined to comment on the lawsuit. But last week Eva Spiegel, a DMV spokesperson, said the state agency was prepared to reissue the commercial licenses as soon as the federal government dropped its objections.
"Given we are in compliance with federal regulations and state law, this delay by the federal government not only hurts our trucking industry, but it also leaves eligible drivers in the cold," Spiegel said in a statement.

The suit, however, said the DMV had the authority to renew the licenses under state law.
California law requires immigrants' commercial licenses to expire no later than the expiration date on their federal work permits. The DMV has acknowledged issuing commercial licenses with later expiration dates and said it would correct them.
"Instead," Singh wrote in the lawsuit, "the DMV has informed applicants that it is not processing - issuing, renewing, or amending - any nonresident CDL and therefore individuals cannot immediately reapply for a corrected license. The DMV has also not provided any timeline of when - if ever - individuals will be permitted to reapply."

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Sikh truck drivers sue California over mass commercial license cancellations