Meanwhile, California revokes 13,000 improperly issued CDLs after federal showdown.
The last time we reported on Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) and the illegal aliens who own them, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had just ordered more than 550 commercial driving schools to close after discovering numerous violations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)’s safety standards.
However, the move to reform the CDL system continues.
Earlier this month, the California Department of Motor Vehicles met the federal government’s demand and revoked approximately 13,000 non-domiciled CDLs. A non-domiciled CDL is a commercial driver’s license issued by a state to a driver who is not a permanent resident in that state or in the U.S., but theoretically is legally authorized to work or reside there temporarily.
How it actually worked was an entirely different story.
A legal struggle session occurred before the cancellations, clearly showing Blue State resistance to rules designed to keep Americans safe.
After an investigation uncovered thousands of improperly issued licenses, California agreed to cancel 17,000 of them by January 5, 2026, but later extended the deadline to March 6 without federal approval. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy then called the move illegal and threatened to withhold $160 million in federal highway funds. Meanwhile, advocacy groups filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 20,000 affected drivers, arguing the DMV’s own mistakes caused the problem.
Still, the Trump administration persisted….
Meanwhile, the federal government was not standing still. Under 49 CFR 384.307, FMCSA [Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration] withheld approximately $160 million in federal highway funding from California for noncompliance — and beyond that funding threat, FMCSA holds authority under federal statute to fully decertify California’s CDL program if the state is found in substantial noncompliance, which would prohibit the state from issuing, renewing, or upgrading any commercial credentials, not just non-domiciled ones. For a state with over 700,000 CDL holders, that threat was not an abstraction.
California found itself pressed between a federal government threatening its entire CDL infrastructure on one side and advocacy groups demanding it protect drivers’ rights on the other. The state accused federal regulators of “moving the goal posts,” arguing it had been ready to reissue corrected CDLs since December but that the federal government kept changing its compliance standards.