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NEWSOM CAUGHT REDHANDED: Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Exposes California Illegally Issued 17,000 Commercial Driver’s Licenses, Gets Them Canceled

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Department will continue to push California to revoke all illegal non-domiciled CDLs or pull $160 million in federal funds

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy announced today that the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has admitted to illegally issuing 17,000 non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) to dangerous foreign drivers. Thanks to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) ongoing audit, each of these licenses is being revoked.  

“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. “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 semitrucks and school buses.”  

Notices have been issued to the 17,000 non-domiciled CDL holders that their license no longer meets federal requirements and will expire in 60 days. FMCSA requires California to provide its full audit of all its non-domiciled CDLs so the agency can verify that every illegally issued license has been revoked and that the failures that allowed these licenses to be issued are corrected.   

Reminder:

FMCSA’s nationwide non-domiciled CDL audit uncovered systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors in California’s non-domiciled CDL program which allowed thousands of CDLs to be illegally issued to foreign drivers. The audit also found that more than one in four of the non-domiciled CDL records sampled in California failed to comply with federal regulations. This includes issuing licenses that extended well beyond a foreigner’s work permit. 

Other FMSCA actions against California:

In October, the Department announced it is withholding over $40 million from California following an investigation that found the state has failed to comply with the Department’s English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards.    

The Department first threatened to withhold funds from California in August if they failed to adopt and enforce ELP requirements for commercial motor vehicle drivers. In July, California Highway Patrol has publicly stated it had no intention of following this important federal regulation.       

In May, Secretary Duffy signed an order announcing new guidelines to strengthen English language enforcement for commercial truck operators. Under the new guidance, commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers who fail to comply with FMCSA longstanding English-language proficiency (ELP) requirements will be placed out-of-service.