California must let immigrant truck drivers keep their licenses, judge rules

Source: AP

Updated 2:05 PM EST, February 26, 2026


More than 20,000 immigrant truck drivers will be able to keep their licenses in California, at least temporarily, despite efforts by the Trump administration and the state of California to revoke them, according to a tentative ruling Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court.

The decision puts the state of California in a bind. The U.S. Department of Transportation already has repeatedly pushed the California Department of Motor Vehicles to rescind these licenses, which belong to many asylum seekers and other immigrants with temporary legal status, after the federal government found alleged clerical issues regarding the expiration dates on their licenses. The California DMV complied with the transportation department’s demands and sent letters to more than 20,000 drivers last fall, telling them that their California licenses would expire in the next 60 days .

But after a law firm and two legal advocacy groups, the Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition, sued on behalf of truckers, saying that the state didn’t follow the proper process for rescinding their licenses, the state extended the expiration dates to March 6. The transportation department said in January that it will withhold $160 million in federal highway funds from California as punishment for extending the expiration dates.

While immigrant drivers in the courtroom celebrated today’s tentative decision, attorneys for the state of California said the judge’s ruling could hurt many more people. The Trump administration has threatened to rescind California’s ability to grant commercial licenses altogether if the state doesn’t comply with its orders regarding immigrant truckers.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/general-news-california-donald-trump-donald-trump-es-transportation-16821336aaf6b8fa2f6699c295b5f9e5