The latest punches have been thrown in the political fight between Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
On Wednesday, Nov. 12, Duffy issued a news release with the headline, “Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy exposes California illegally issued 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses, gets them canceled.”
According to the DOT, the California Department of Motor Vehicles admitted to “illegally issuing 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs to dangerous foreign drivers.”
“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed,” Duffy said in the news release. “Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked. This is just the tip of the iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semi-trucks and school buses.”
The DOT said that notices have been issued to non-domiciled CDL holders, saying that their licenses no longer meet federal requirements and will expire in 60 days. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is requiring California to provide a full audit of its non-domiciled CDLs so the agency can “verify that every illegally issued license has been revoked and that the failures that allowed these licenses to be issued are corrected.”
The California DMV did not immediately respond to Land Line’s request for comment.
Fight recap
The Nov. 12 news release was just the latest in an ongoing fight between the DOT and California.
In October, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said California shared responsibility in an Oct. 21 fatal crash on Interstate 10 in Ontario, Calif. Duffy said the state failed to follow FMCSA’s emergency interim final rule regarding the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs.
The California Highway Patrol confirmed that truck driver Jashanpreet Singh, 21, was arrested on Oct. 21 for driving under the influence of drugs and vehicular manslaughter following the eight-vehicle crash. The charges for driving under the influence were later dropped.
Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an immigration detainer for Singh. According to the DHS, Singh is from India and entered the U.S. illegally in 2022.
The California State Transportation Agency pushed back, posting on the social media platform X that the state doesn’t decide whether a CDL applicant is eligible.
“MISINFORMATION ALERT: The state does not determine commercial driver’s license eligibility,” the state transportation agency wrote. “The FEDERAL government approves and renews all FEDERAL employment authorization documents that (allow) individuals to work and obtain commercial driver’s licenses.”
MISINFORMATION ALERT: The state does not determine commercial driver’s license eligibility. The FEDERAL government approves and renews all FEDERAL employment authorization documents that allows individuals to work and obtain commercial driver’s licenses.
— CalSTA (@CA_Trans_Agency) October 23, 2025
Newsom has said that California CDL holders possess a fatal crash rate nearly 40% lower than the national average.
In addition to the battle over California’s issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, the DOT has put the state on blast for issuing CDLs to drivers who can’t read or speak English.
Duffy announced in October that the FMCSA would withhold about $41 million from California for not complying with the agency’s English-proficiency standards. LL
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