End State-Issued CDLs to Illegal Immigrants Now
America’s interstates have become killing fields, and the weapon of choice is an 80,000-pound semi-truck piloted by drivers who should never have been behind the wheel in the first place. In 2025 alone, a string of preventable tragedies has exposed a lethal loophole: a handful of states-chiefly California, but now Pennsylvania and others-are handing commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to illegal immigrants, asylum seekers, and in the most recent case, individuals on international terrorist watchlists. The result is a national crisis measured in body bags.
The pattern is undeniable.
- August 2025: Harjinder Singh, an illegal immigrant who crossed in 2018 and failed his CDL test ten times in Washington state, finally obtained licenses in both Washington and California despite barely speaking English. Days later he made an illegal U-turn on Florida’s Turnpike, obliterating a minivan and killing three members of a family.
- October 21, 2025: Jashanpreet Singh, another illegal immigrant and asylum seeker released at the border in 2022, received a restricted California CDL in June. On October 15-after the federal government had explicitly ordered California to stop issuing and upgrading non-domiciled CDLs to people in Singh’s immigration category-the California DMV removed the restriction anyway. Six days later, high on drugs and traveling at freeway speed, he plowed into stopped traffic on I-10 in Ontario, killing three more Americans.
- November 2025: Texas DPS troopers conducting routine commercial inspections on I-40 discovered that nearly one in three truckers they stopped-31 out of 105-were in the country illegally, the overwhelming majority holding California-issued non-domiciled CDLs.
- November 19, 2025: An Uzbek national on an active international terrorist warrant was pulled over in Kansas. In his wallet: a valid Pennsylvania-issued CDL.
These are not isolated incidents; they are the predictable consequence of deliberate policy choices. Sanctuary-minded governors and legislatures have decided that political ideology matters more than the lives of American citizens. California alone has admitted to illegally issuing at least 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs to individuals with no verifiable lawful presence. Pennsylvania has been caught issuing licenses that remain valid long after the holder’s legal authorization to be in the United States has expired. Washington state looked the other way while drivers failed basic skills tests a dozen times.
The federal government finally acted. On September 26, 2025, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued an emergency rule closing the non-domiciled CDL loophole: no more commercial licenses without an employment-based visa and real-time verification through the SAVE system. Asylum seekers, parolees, and illegal entrants are now explicitly ineligible. Yet some states simply ignored the order. California upgraded Jashanpreet Singh’s license in direct violation of the rule-six days before he killed three people.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has responded with the only language defiant states understand: money. California has already seen tens of millions in highway funds frozen and faces $160 million more on the chopping block. Pennsylvania was just hit with a $75 million threat. More letters are in the mail.
SCOOP: The Trump administration is taking on yet another blue state for issuing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
Transportation @SecDuffy has threatened to withhold $75 million in federal funding from Pennsylvania if the state refuses to stop handing out… pic.twitter.com/Xaw0LIUMeV
— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) November 20, 2025
But withholding funds is a half-measure. The trucks are already on the road. The drivers are already here. Every day we delay is another day Americans die.
There is only one acceptable solution, and it must be immediate and total:
- Every state must cease issuing or renewing any CDL-domiciled or non-domiciled-to any individual without permanent lawful status in the United States. No exceptions, no grandfather clauses.
- Every improperly issued CDL must be revoked within 30 days, with physical surrender required. Driving on a revoked CDL must carry felony penalties when the revocation stems from immigration fraud.
- ICE must prioritize the location, arrest, and expedited removal of every illegal immigrant currently holding a commercial license. A semi-truck in the hands of someone who has no legal right to be in this country is a weapon of mass destruction in slow motion.
- Congress must pass legislation-modeled on Rep. Pat Harrigan’s SAFE Drivers Act and Rep. Beth Van Duyne’s Protecting America’s Roads Act-permanently banning illegal immigrants from ever obtaining a CDL and imposing crippling fines on any state that tries.
Some will cry “xenophobia” or whine about labor shortages. Let them. The blood of American families is worth infinitely more than cheap freight rates or political virtue-signaling. When a terrorist watchlist subject can waltz into a Pennsylvania DMV and walk out with the legal authority to pilot 40 tons of steel across the continent, we are not arguing about immigration policy anymore-we are arguing about national survival.
The evidence is written in wreckage from Florida to California, in the funeral processions of innocent mothers, fathers, and children. The data from Texas and Oklahoma sweeps scream the same truth: nearly one-third of the commercial drivers on our highways in some corridors should not be here at all.
Enough.
Revoke the licenses.
Deport the drivers.
Save American lives.
The time for warnings has passed. The next crash is already barreling down the interstate, and we know exactly who is behind the wheel.
