That 18-wheeler roaring past you on the highway is the lifeblood of our economy. Every day, millions of us share the road with these commercial giants, and we all just assume the person driving it knows what they’re doing. We put our faith in a system of licensing and regulation, a quiet contract that says the driver of an 80,000-pound rig has proven they are safe and competent.

But what happens when that contract is systematically torn up by a state government hellbent on putting its political agenda first? It’s a terrifying scenario, one where the rule of law is sacrificed for ideology. In Gavin Newsom’s California, this isn’t a hypothetical. It’s a documented crisis that has finally been dragged into the light.

From ‘BizPacReview’:

“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed,” [Department of Transportation Secretary Sean] Duffy said in a public statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked.”

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Duffy continued. “My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.”

Let’s be perfectly clear. This wasn’t some oopsie in the filing cabinet or a simple bureaucratic blunder. This was a calculated, deliberate middle finger to federal law from California’s Democrat machine. The state’s DMV finally coughed up the truth: it knowingly and unlawfully issued a staggering 17,000 Commercial Driver’s Licenses to migrant drivers, all in service of its radical open-borders agenda.

A Deliberate Pattern of Defiance

For months, the Trump administration has been on this, investigating the bizarre and dangerous trend of unqualified foreign nationals getting behind the wheels of big rigs. A federal audit uncovered a “catastrophic pattern” of states thumbing their noses at the law, and California was the undisputed king of the mountain. More than a quarter of the non-domiciled CDLs the feds reviewed from the Golden State were bogus.

When confronted, did California’s leaders apologize and promise to fix it? Of course not. They doubled down. The DOT discovered that state officials were ignoring federal English Language Proficiency standards. Then, in a truly stunning moment of arrogance, the California Highway Patrol declared it had no intention of adhering to these regulations. You know, trivial things like making sure a trucker can read a sign that says, “Bridge Out Ahead.”

Putting Ideology Before American Lives

Don’t let them tell you this is just politics. The consequences of California’s little social experiment are measured in twisted metal and body bags. The entire federal investigation was launched because of a “string of deadly highway accidents” involving illegal migrant truckers. In one gruesome case, a driver involved in a horrific crash couldn’t even pass basic English or road sign tests.

Every single American family on the highway was put in jeopardy by these policies. For the sake of virtue signaling and shielding illegal immigrants, Governor Newsom’s administration willingly unleashed thousands of potentially untrained, unqualified, and non-English-speaking drivers onto our roads. Secretary Duffy was right to call it “disgusting.” It is a disgusting affront to every citizen who expects their government to perform its most basic duty: keeping them safe.

Federal Action to Restore Order

Thankfully, the adults are back in charge in Washington. Under President Trump, the days of letting rogue states endanger the entire country are over. The Department of Transportation isn’t sending strongly worded letters; it’s taking action. All 17,000 of these fraudulent licenses are being canceled, and a full federal audit is underway to hunt down every last one.

Better yet, the administration is hitting them where it hurts: the wallet. The DOT has already yanked over $40 million in federal funds from California for its safety failures. Now, another $160 million is on the chopping block unless the state gets its act together, and fast. This isn’t punishment for the sake of it. It is the long-overdue enforcement of federal law to protect us all.

This entire fiasco is about more than just licenses. It’s a story of a profound betrayal of public trust, where one state’s radical ideology sees American safety as an obstacle and our laws as mere suggestions. They got caught red-handed, and now, finally, they’re being held to account.

Key Takeaways

• California’s DMV unlawfully issued 17,000 commercial licenses to migrant drivers.
• This was a deliberate policy to defy federal law, not a bureaucratic error.
• This reckless decision directly endangered Americans on our nation’s highways.
• The Trump administration is revoking the licenses and holding California accountable.

Sources: BizPac Review