Overview
- A federal FMCSA audit found systemic errors in California’s non‑domiciled CDL program, with more than one in four sampled records out of compliance, and the state’s affected drivers were told their licenses will expire in about 60 days.
- California disputes the federal characterization, saying the drivers had valid work authorizations and that the state is correcting inconsistencies under its own laws and prior federal guidance.
- DOT has already withheld about $40 million over English‑proficiency enforcement and is threatening to pull up to $160 million more unless California completes a full audit and cancels noncompliant licenses.
- The enforcement push followed deadly crashes involving noncitizen truck drivers, including an August Florida case tied to a California‑issued CDL where the driver failed an English assessment after the wreck.
- FMCSA says multiple states show similar issues, and new federal rules now limit noncitizen CDL eligibility to H‑2A, H‑2B and E‑2 visa holders, with DOT estimating only about 10,000 of roughly 200,000 current noncitizen CDL holders would qualify going forward.