The political conflict between U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and California Governor Gavin Newsom escalated once again following a statement released on November 12. In it, Duffy accused the state of illegally issuing 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to “foreign drivers not domiciled in the country,” leading to their immediate cancellation.

According to the Department of Transportation (DOT), the California DMV acknowledged that these licenses had been improperly granted. Affected drivers have already received notices informing them that their CDLs will expire within 60 days for failing to meet federal eligibility requirements. The FMCSA also ordered a full audit to verify that every irregular license has been revoked and to address the system failures that allowed this to happen.

Duffy insisted that this situation is “only the tip of the iceberg” and vowed to pressure the state to prove that no undocumented driver is still operating commercial trucks. The DMV did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This controversy follows an earlier clash in October, when Duffy partially blamed California for a fatal crash on the I-10 in Ontario, arguing that the state failed to comply with the federal interim rule governing CDL issuance for non-domiciled applicants. In that incident, the driver, 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh, was arrested for vehicular manslaughter; ICE also issued an immigration detainer after confirming that Singh had entered the country illegally in 2022.

The California State Transportation Agency responded by noting that the state does not determine the immigration eligibility of CDL applicants, further intensifying the standoff between the two sides.