California's DMV has finally responded to DOT's "bombshell" report saying the state upgraded the license of driver Jashanpreet Singh, who failed to slow down and crashed into a line of traffic on I-10 in California, killing three on October 21.
On September 26, DOT issued an emergency rulemaking seeking to push 200,000 non-domiciled CDL holders out of trucking by restricting these licenses to only a few select types of visa holders. On the same day, DOT formally notified California of "significant compliance failures" after an audit revealed one in four non-domiciled CDLs sampled were issued improperly.
DOT demanded California:
- Pause issuance of non-domiciled CDLs
- Identify all unexpired non-domiciled CDLs that fail to comply with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations
- Revoke all noncompliant non-domiciled CDLs or reissue them if they comply with the new federal requirements
On Oct. 15, Singh, who already held an intrastate CDL, turned 21, and California's DMV removed Singh's intrastate restriction.
[Related: Lawsuit seeks to block DOT's purge of 194,000 non-domiciled drivers]
On Oct. 21, Singh struck a queue of stopped vehicles and fatally injured three people, sending a few others to the hospital.
Authorities originally said Singh at that time was influence of drugs and charged him with three counts of Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated and one count of Driving While Under the Influence of a Drug Causing Injury.
Since then, the San Bernardino County District Attorney said that toxicology reports confirmed he was not intoxicated. The DA’s office added that “the case remains a grossly negligent homicide,” and a new complaint was filed to reflect the new findings.
In any case, DOT said that if California had followed the new rule laid out on September 26, "Singh would have been required to return to the DMV (on or after October 15) to have the 'K' restriction removed and upgrade his CDL," and that at that point, "Singh would have been subject to the emergency rule and found ineligible to retain the non-domiciled CDL due to Singh’s status as an asylum seeker."
After two weeks of repeated inquiries from Overdrive, California's DMV has finally responded to DOT.
"On Thursday, October 23, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) notified California that even though no new license is necessarily issued, the automatic removal of the K restriction is considered an upgrade under new federal regulations," California DMV said. "As a result, this automatic removal is no longer permitted."
FMCSA's September 29 rulemaking "requires non-citizen applicants" like Singh to prove they have "a specified type of employment-based nonimmigrant status at every issuance, transfer, renewal, and upgrade action." California, apparently, wasn't on the same page about upgrades.
"Jashanpreet Singh turned 21 on October 15, 2025, eight days before FMCSA" notified the state specifically about upgrades, California's DMV continued.
California automatically removes intrastate restrictions on CDLs when someone turns 21. Following FMCSA's audit of the state's licensing program, California has acknowledged at least 20,000 CDLs issued that don't comply with its own state laws, while DOT contends those CDLs also don't comply with federal laws.
Rather than revoke the 20,000 CDLs that California acknowledges violate their own state laws by granting commercial driver privileges for months or sometimes even years longer than an applicant is legally authorized to live or work in the U.S., California said it would keep them in place.
[Related: Florida sues California, Washington for issuing CDLs to 'illegal alien' Harjinder Singh]
DOT Secretary Sean Duffy has since expressed some frustration with the state, saying he might revoke as much as $160 million in funding. California has invited more conversation with DOT and raised a number of legal challenges to the new rulemaking, as well as the new English language standards for CMV drivers.
“My prayers are with the families of the victims of this tragedy. It would have never happened if Gavin Newsom had followed our new rules. California broke the law and now three people are dead and two are hospitalized. These people deserve justice. There will be consequences,” said Duffy back in October.
