After several fatal crashes involving improperly licensed commercial drivers, the Trump administration has launched a broader effort to ensure that people operating big rigs and buses are properly licensed and qualified. That campaign now faces lawsuits from Democratic-led states challenging a federal demand for personal information connected to approximately 17 million commercial-driver records.
The dispute centers on the Commercial Driver’s License Information System, a national database operated by the nonprofit American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators under a federal contract. DOT and the Department of Homeland Security requested five years of records containing drivers’ names, birth dates, license numbers and Social Security numbers. The states argue that the bulk transfer exceeds federal authority and violates privacy protections; Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says their lawsuits will obstruct enforcement and make it harder to identify dangerous or improperly licensed drivers. A federal judge has temporarily blocked DHS from obtaining the records while the challenge proceeds.
Since President Trump issued an April 2025 executive order addressing the trucking industry, DOT says its enforcement campaign has revoked more than 30,000 improperly issued commercial licenses, removed nearly 10,000 fraudulent or unqualified training providers from the federal registry and placed more than 26,000 drivers out of service for failing English-proficiency requirements.
California has approximately 700,000 commercial-license holders, including operators of big rigs, school buses and transit vehicles. A federal audit found that California had issued non-domiciled licenses with expiration dates extending beyond some drivers’ authorized periods of legal presence or employment. The state notified approximately 17,000 drivers and ultimately canceled roughly 13,000 licenses after some drivers became permanent residents or citizens, allowed their licenses to expire or voluntarily downgraded them.
Non-domiciled drivers are not necessarily undocumented or untrained; many are asylum seekers, refugees, DACA recipients or other immigrants legally permitted to live and work in the United States. However, stricter federal immigration-eligibility rules could eventually prevent as many as 61,000 California commercial drivers from obtaining or renewing their licenses. That remains a projection—not a completed cancellation—and is separate from the administration’s enforcement of English-language requirements.
AI aided in compiling this story.
