UNITED SIKHS Condemns California’s Revocation of 17,000 Immigrant CDLs: “This Is Government-Sanctioned Discrimination.”
UNITED SIKHS Condemns California’s Revocation of 17,000 Immigrant CDLs: “This Is Government-Sanctioned Discrimination.”
Fremont, CA — UNITED SIKHS forcefully condemns California’s mass revocation of more than 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses held by legally present immigrant truckers—a sweeping action that will devastate families, destabilize the state’s freight economy, and fuel discrimination against Sikh and other minority drivers.
“This is government-sanctioned discrimination,” said Bhupinder Kaur, Director of Operations for UNITED SIKHS. “You do not protect safety by targeting people for how they look, where they were born, or how they pray. You protect safety by treating every driver fairly. California just did the opposite.”
The revocations—affecting asylum seekers, refugees, and other legally present immigrants—come on top of a federal FMCSA rule already allowing police to sideline state-certified drivers based on subjective language judgments. Together, these actions strip thousands of professional immigrant drivers of their ability to work despite clean records and valid documentation.
UNITED SIKHS warns the move will:
- Push thousands of Sikhs, Indian, and immigrant drivers out of the workforce.
- Deepen driver shortages and supply-chain delays up and down California.
- Stoke bias, profiling, and unequal enforcement on the highways.
- Punish families who have done everything legally required to work and contribute.
“There is no evidence that immigration status has anything to do with safety,” Kaur said. “But the human impact of ripping away 17,000 livelihoods overnight is enormous—and it is discriminatory.”
UNITED SIKHS is calling on California officials and the federal government to:
- Reinstate the revoked CDLs immediately.
- Halt enforcement actions that target lawful immigrant drivers.
- Ensure equal due process and equal treatment for every trucker on America’s highways.
“California’s economy runs on immigrant labor,” Kaur added. “Removing 17,000 trained drivers is not safety. It is a civil-rights crisis—and we will fight it.”