December 23, 2025 (Oakland, California) — Late yesterday, the Sikh Coalition, along with co-counsel at Asian Law Caucus and Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP, filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Motor Vehicles (CA-DMV).

The suit challenges the CA-DMV’s unlawful cancellation of more than 20,000 non-domiciled commercial drivers’ licenses (CDLs) due to minor clerical discrepancies. It is a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of five CDL holders who have been deprived of their rights and livelihoods, as well as the Jakara Movement as an additional plaintiff. You can read the lawsuit itself here.

Beginning in November, the CA-DMV began issuing notices that it was cancelling these CDLs belonging to drivers who had minor paperwork discrepancies, including mismatches between the expiration dates on their CDLs and their work permits. This action was taken as a result of pressure from the federal government; unfortunately, the CA-DMV has thus far failed to provide any recourse or means for drivers to correct these issues. By ejecting these drivers from the workforce without allowing for any sort of solution, the CA-DMV is discriminating against them on the basis of their immigration status.

“The state of California must help these 20,000 drivers because, at the end of the day, the clerical errors threatening their livelihoods are of the CA-DMV’s own making. If the court does not issue a stay, we will see a devastating wave of unemployment that harms individual families, as well as the destabilization of supply chains on which we all rely,” said Munmeeth Kaur, legal director of the Sikh Coalition. “These drivers have spent years anchoring their lives to these careers, only to now face potential economic ruin through no fault of their own—they deserve better, and California must do better.”