SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — The California Department of Motor Vehicles is facing a lawsuit filed on behalf of nearly 20,000 immigrant truckers seeking to block the state from canceling their commercial driver’s licenses after the DMV sent cancellation notices citing expiration date errors on non-domiciled CDLs.

The Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition, along with the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in an effort to stop the DMV from canceling the licenses. The complaint states the cancellations would “result in mass work stoppages” starting Jan. 5, 2026.

“This class-action lawsuit is brought on behalf of the Jakara Movement and five commercial drivers who have been deprived of their rights and livelihoods,” the Asian Law Caucus and Sikh Coalition said in a joint statement. The statement said that, according to reports from the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED, California state officials communicated they would begin reissuing licenses on Dec. 17, but that “despite these public assurances, the state has neither reissued any of the contested licenses nor created a process to remedy the date issue with no indication that it plans to do so before January 5.”

The lawsuit alleges that on Nov. 6, the DMV notified 17,299 immigrant drivers and business owners that their non-domiciled CDLs would be canceled on Jan. 5, 2026, due to an error with the expiration date of the licenses. The lawsuit also states that a similar letter was sent to an additional 2,700 drivers in December, informing them their licenses would be canceled in mid-February.

According to the lawsuit, the DMV is required to set the expiration date for a CDL given to an immigrant on either the same day or before the expiration of the driver’s work authorization or legal presence documents. The complaint alleges the DMV letters violated California procedure, which it says would require the department to either cancel the license without prejudice or change the expiration date.

“For all 19,999 immigrants, the DMV intends to cancel their commercial licenses without affording any opportunity to obtain a corrected license or to contest the cancellation,” the lawsuit states.

The filing further alleges that “despite its own regulation, the DMV did not consistently ensure that a CDL’s expiration date matched the end of a person’s period of work authorization or lawful presence.” The lawsuit also references a political dispute in November, stating that after a heated back and forth between the federal government and California, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that California was planning to revoke 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs. The lawsuit notes that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office pushed back on the DOT’s assertion that the state “admitted to illegally issuing” the licenses, while also asserting that notices were sent to more than the reported 17,000 drivers.

The lawsuit argues the cancellations would affect more than the drivers’ employment, saying the drivers “play an indispensable role in our local and national economies, providing essential services that communities rely on every day, including transporting food, driving children to school and delivering manufactured goods.” It says the loss of their ability to work threatens their livelihoods and “the stability of our supply chains and services on which the public depends,” and adds, “Neither the individuals nor our communities can sustain the harm that will occur if these drivers lose their licenses, careers, and economic stability.”

The complaint describes specific examples among the plaintiffs and affected drivers. In one instance, a plaintiff identified as John Doe 4 allegedly received a cancellation letter even though his CDL expires on the same day as his work authorization, which the filing says is the very document he supposedly used to renew the license. The lawsuit claims there are recipients of cancellation letters whose CDLs appear to be in compliance.

In another instance, the lawsuit says a member of the Jakara Movement—described in the filing as a “grassroots community-building organization working to empower, educate, and organize working-class Punjabi Sikhs, and other marginalized communities”—went to a DMV office in person to address concerns about the cancellation. The lawsuit alleges the Jakara member was “pressured into surrendering his CDL, out of fear that his non-commercial driver’s license would already be cancelled.”

The lawsuit also claims the DMV “has not explained how it identified 19,999 licenses as out of compliance with state law and how it can ensure that its determinations are accurate.”

The plaintiffs are asking the court to issue a writ of mandate, a preliminary injunction, or a permanent injunction requiring the DMV to ensure the plaintiffs and others covered under the proposed class action can obtain corrected CDLs “without interruption to their driving privileges.”

The filing also references broader federal enforcement context, stating the Trump administration launched a crackdown on the CDL issuing process as part of efforts to tackle illegal immigration, and that the move came after a series of fatal crashes involving non-domiciled CDL holders.

The California DMV and the governor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to the report, and the case remains pending as the court process moves forward.

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