OAKLAND, Calif. — A coalition of civil rights groups and legal representatives, including the Asian Law Caucus, the Sikh Coalition, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, and the Jakara Movement, has issued a joint statement announcing the filing of an emergency order against the California Department of Motor Vehicles (CA-DMV). According to the written release, a copy of which is available with Sikh Siyasat News (SSN), the groups are urgently seeking to pause the impending mass cancellations of commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) that were scheduled to occur on Friday, March 6.
The impending revocations threaten the livelihoods of close to 20,000 commercial drivers who cannot perform their jobs without a valid CDL. Earlier this week, the Superior Court of California, Alameda County, ruled that the CA-DMV must provide a clear process allowing drivers with canceled licenses to immediately reapply. However, since that decision, drivers have received confusing and inconsistent information from the CA-DMV. The legal groups argue that a pause is absolutely necessary to protect drivers from an indefinite period of job loss while the state clarifies its procedures.
The legal challenge brought by the coalition follows the class-action lawsuit Doe v. Gordon, initially filed by the groups in December 2025. Advocates warn that without immediate court protection, drivers will unjustly bear the brunt of the CA-DMV’s own bureaucratic errors.
“The people that keep California’s economy moving deserve better than the chaos of the last several months,” stated Munmeeth Kaur, Legal Director at the Sikh Coalition. “We’re seeking this order to stop the DMV from forcing thousands of qualified drivers off the road and ensure compliance with the court’s previous order. In short, the DMV should be clarifying their processes and fixing their errors—not inflicting economic hardship on our communities.”
Leaders representing the affected workers stressed the severe economic and emotional toll the state’s actions are taking on immigrant communities.
“Immigrant drivers have been living with uncertainty since these letters went out, and canceling their CDLs on March 6 will only deepen the hardship for working families,” said Deep Singh, Executive Director of the Jakara Movement. “For many drivers, this is how they put food on the table. Since the California DMV hasn’t provided a fair or clear process, we’re turning to the courts for emergency relief and remain hopeful they will step in to protect these workers.”
Legal advocates emphasized that the drivers had followed all required laws and regulations, making the state’s actions fundamentally unfair.
“Thousands of drivers are about to lose their livelihoods because of the state’s own mistake—and that is unacceptable,” said Katherine Zhao, Senior Staff Attorney at the Asian Law Caucus. “Drivers are fed up and scared, and we are seeking an emergency order to ensure that drivers can still wake up and do their jobs on March 7. These workers did everything the law required of them, yet they’re the ones being punished for a bureaucratic failure they didn’t create. The state cannot rip away people’s licenses first and figure out a fix later. These cancellations must be stopped now.”
