The Brief

Thousands of immigrant California truck drivers are in legal limbo after the Trump administration ordered the state to revoke their licenses earlier this year. Many are now out of work and unable to support their families.

Multiple lawsuits seek to restore the commercial driving licenses, otherwise known as trucking licenses, but so far, none of the cases have succeeded in keeping those drivers on the road.

As many as 61,000 California truck drivers will lose their licenses in the coming years as a result of the federal actions, representing between 5% and 10% of the state’s licenseholders. Roughly 13,000 drivers have already lost their licenses, which industry experts say could raise shipping costs across the state.

Many of the affected drivers are asylum seekers or those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status. They have the legal right to live and work in the U.S. but the Trump administration has alleged, without rigorous data, that these truckers drive more dangerously than U.S. citizens or immigrants with more permanent status, such as green card holders. To justify its crackdown, the federal government cited a few fatal crashes last year involving Punjabi truck drivers, including one in Ontario in October that killed three people.

For affected immigrant drivers, the loss of their trucking licenses puts their livelihoods in jeopardy.

One, whose last name is Singh, has two kids and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. For years he was rarely home as a long-haul truck driver carrying freight across the country. CalMatters agreed not to use his first name because he fears immigration officials will target him.

Singh is legally able to live and work in the U.S. because a judge approved his asylum case. He applied for a green card three years ago, but it has yet to arrive. If it had, he would be exempt from the federal enforcement actions and policies.

As an independent contractor, Singh contracts with companies to deliver goods, making between $11,000 and $16,000 a month. But expenses are high. Four years ago, he bought his own truck for $160,000 and he has monthly $3,000 loan payments, plus $1,500 a month in insurance.

Because of the new enforcement actions, Singh lost his commercial license on March 6 and is no longer able to drive his truck. The California DMV issued him a temporary license that allows him to drive a car, but that license is inadequate as a form of ID, said Singh, since many employers don’t recognize its validity. The temporary license isn’t a hard copy and doesn’t have a photo.

Singh said his wife has started working as a nanny while Singh searches for a job.

“What kind of job is going to pay off the rent and all these payments?” he said during a phone interview with CalMatters while his kids, ages 4 and 8, yelled for him in the background.

A year-long wait for resolution

In September, the Trump administration criticized the California DMV for giving commercial licenses with expiration dates that didn’t align with the dates of drivers’ work permits. The federal government then ordered California to rescind thousands of trucking licenses for certain non-citizens and created a new policy banning such immigrant drivers from obtaining licenses in the future. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the accusations were unfair or false but the state ultimately complied.

In February, an Alameda County Superior Court judge ordered the state to give drivers such as Singh a chance to restore their licenses after a law firm and two legal advocacy groups, the Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition, sued on behalf of the truckers.

But California has yet to reissue a single one of the 13,000 licenses it rescinded.

“The court ruled that DMV must accept new applications and act on those applications within a ‘reasonable time frame,’” a DMV spokesperson, Jonathan Groveman, told CalMatters in an email. The DMV has told Singh and other affected drivers that they can reapply for their licenses and that the DMV will take up to a year to process them. Even then, the DMV told the Alameda County Superior Court judge that it may not be able to make a decision on the licenses.

The DMV is delaying because it is under pressure from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which has threatened to punish California if it issues commercial licenses to these immigrants. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy already said he will withhold roughly $160 million in federal highway funds from the state over its previous handling of the trucking licenses. He also said if the state reissues the licenses, the transportation department would consider more severe actions, including revoking the state’s ability to issue trucking licenses entirely.

The California DMV sued the transportation department in February in response to the threats. Other lawsuits, including a Washington, D.C. case, could reverse some of the policies affecting California’s immigrant drivers, but they are still pending.

In March, Singh called his bank to ask about a deferment for the loan payments on his truck while he waits for a decision about restoring his license. He said the bank was familiar with his situation because it had received a number of similar calls that week from other truck drivers. It denied his request, he said.

On April 2, the Alameda judge held another hearing, seeking an update on the DMV’s attempts to restore the licenses. The state said that it is still sorting out its feud with the Trump administration and is awaiting the status of related legal developments, which could take months. The judge agreed to discuss the matter again in October.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Iran's top officials pushed back Monday against President Donald Trump's deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz, striking a defiant tone as the warring sides traded missile attacks. The U.S. and Israel targeted oil facilities inside Iran, while Iran hit several towns in Israel and oil refineries across the Gulf countries.

In a social media post Sunday, Trump issued a profane warning for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. "Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran," and adding, "Open the F***in' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!" He later specified the deadline: Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.

Attacking civilian infrastructure that doesn't contribute to military action is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

Iranian officials reacted to Trump's threats.

A spokesman for Iran's president, Seyyed Mehdi Tabatabai, called Trump's statement a reaction of "sheer desperation and anger."

"The Strait of Hormuz will open when all the damage caused by the imposed war is compensated through a new legal regime, using a portion of the revenue from transit fees," Tabatabai said in a social media post on Sunday.

Iran's Foreign Ministry echoed the statement: "We are determined to defend our national security and sovereignty with all might," the ministry's spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, told Iran's Wana news agency.

Iran's Mission to the U.N. said on Sunday "Trump seeks to drag the region into an endless war."

"This is direct and public incitement to terrorise civilians and clear evidence of intent to commit war crimes," it said in a post on X. "The international community and all States have legal obligations to prevent such atrocious acts of war crimes."

Volunteers sew Iranian flags to distribute across the city for free in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday. According to the team's manager, up to 5,000 flags are distributed daily.

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Here are more updates on the war in Iran today:

Diplomatic initiatives | Israel kills intel chief | Strikes in Iran, Israel and Gulf | Bab al-Mandeb Strait

Diplomatic initiatives under way

Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish envoys are said to have submitted to the U.S. and Iran a proposal for a 45-day ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, according to The Associated Press.

The proposal was submitted on Sunday to Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, AP reported.

Qatar's prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, had a series of phone calls over the weekend with officials from India, Spain and Norway, and "emphasized the need to strengthen coordination, intensify joint efforts, return to the negotiating table, and prioritize reason and wisdom to contain the crisis, thereby ensuring global energy security, freedom of navigation, environmental safety, and preserving regional stability," according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry.

An Israeli soldier overlooks the scene as search and rescue personnel work at the site of a residential building destroyed in an Iranian strike in the northern city of Haifa on Sunday.

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The Foreign Ministry of Oman said its representatives engaged with Iranian diplomats in a meeting "where possible options were discussed regarding ensuring the smooth flow of passage through the Strait of Hormuz during these circumstances witnessed in the region."

In a post on X on Sunday, the ministry said that "experts from both sides presented a number of visions and proposals that will be studied."

Israel killed the intelligence chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard

A woman holds Iran's national flag while standing near a billboard with a sentence reading "The Strait of Hormuz remains closed" at the Enqelab Square in Tehran, on Sunday.

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Iran has confirmed the killing of Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, intelligence chief of the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Israel claimed responsibility for the killing.

Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said the country's forces would continue to "hunt down" Iran's leaders one by one and threatened to destroy Iran's national infrastructure if it continues firing at civilians in Israel.

As Israel burns through its stockpile of interceptors that shoot down missiles, it has announced a plan to speed up production.

U.S. and Israel strike Iran's oil and steel plants as Iran targets the region's refineries and telecoms

Israeli officials said on Monday that U.S. and Israeli jets struck Iran's petrochemical industry, steel plans and other infrastructure and disabled their operations. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the targeted sites supported Iran's missile production industry.

Iran launched missiles and drones in Israel and across the Persian Gulf at oil refineries overnight, which it said produce fuel and products used by the U.S. military.

Iranian missiles hit Tel Aviv, other towns in central Israel and the northern port city of Haifa on Monday. Iran said it targeted the oil refinery, which it said supplies fuel to Israeli jets. The Magen David Adom rescue teams in Haifa said their paramedics were treating four people for mild injuries and the organization's footage from the scene showed smoke and fire in a residential area.

Israeli emergency responders search for missing people at the site of an apparent Iranian ballistic missile strike in Haifa, Israel, Sunday.

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Four people were killed in Haifa on Sunday after an Iranian missile struck a six-floor residential building, which was engulfed in flames.

Iranian drones also struck the oil sector complex in Shuwaikh on Sunday, where Kuwait Petroleum Corporation headquarters and the country's ministry of oil are located. A statement by KPC said the strikes caused a fire at the complex, causing "substantial material damage."

It also said that "a number" of operational facilities managed by Kuwait National Petroleum Company and the Petrochemical Industries were hit by drones, with fire erupting in several facilities.

Authorities said emergency teams were on site to contain the fires. Over the weekend, Iran also hit two power and water desalination plants in Kuwait, knocking out power generation units.

Meanwhile, a telecom building and a port were targeted in the UAE on Monday. That port is vital for food imports as its main port in Dubai remains inaccessible. Officials in the United Arab Emirates reported to have intercepted nine ballistic missiles, 50 drones and a cruise missile fired by Iran on Sunday. UAE's ministry of defense said the country's air defenses were engaged through Monday to intercept Iranian missiles and drones.

Bab al-Mandeb Strait as a target

Supporters of the Iran-backed Houthi movement brandish their weapons as they rally in solidarity with Iran and Lebanon amid the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, in Yemen's capital of Sanaa on Friday.

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Aliakbar Velayati, an adviser to the newly appointed supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, warned that Iran may target another key location in the Middle East for the passage of vessels, Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Tucked between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, connecting the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea to the Suez Canal, Bab al-Mandeb Strait could become a target of the Iran-backed Houthi militants, who entered the Iran war last week by attacking Israel, and operate out of Yemen.

An estimated 10 % of the global trade moves through the Red Sea, a key route for transporting oil from the Arabian Gulf to Mediterranean and connecting Europe to Asia.

Velayati said Iran's regime "views Bab al-Mandab with the same intensity as Hormuz."

"And if the White House contemplates repeating its foolish mistakes, it will quickly realize that the flow of energy and global trade can be disrupted with a single signal," Velayati wrote on X. America, he added, "has yet to learn the geography of power."

Carrie Kahn and Daniel Estrin contributed to this report from Tel Aviv, Israel, Aya Batrawy from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Tina Kraja from Washington, D.C.
Copyright 2026 NPR

The Long Beach City College Board of Trustees voted Friday to rename the Labor Center at its Trades, Technology, and Community Learning campus in honor of United Farm Workers cofounder Dolores Huerta, whose longtime advocacy for workers and civil rights has shaped labor movements across the country.

LBCC Trustee Vivian Malauulu said Friday that she was pleased about the renaming. Known at its opening simply as the Labor Center, Malauulu said Huerta had been scheduled to attend its ribbon-cutting six years ago, but COVID-19 prevented her from attending; Huerta instead sent a video message.

“She was gracious enough to provide a really detailed video, which blew me away because I wasn’t expecting it to be so thoughtful, really just a heartfelt commentary on the Labor Center,” Malauulu said. “I remember thinking six years ago that it would be so cool if we named the Labor Center after her.”

In light of recent reports that César Chávez sexually assaulted women and girls, including Huerta, trustees decided to focus on Huerta’s contributions to labor and civil rights. Malauulu said she wants to get the ball rolling quickly on the agreed-upon name change.

Trustee Virginia Baxter said at the meeting that she agreed with Malauulu’s sentiments and added that she believes the process to rename the Labor Center should move quickly because Huerta is in her 90s.

“I met Miss Huerta at the book signing for George Pla, and I was amazed at how articulate and lively at 96 she is. I do think we should do this relatively soon, and it’s best to honor people when they are alive rather than after they are gone,” Baxter said.

Updates to the building will include changes to the center’s signage and other visual elements. Trustees expressed hope that, with some urgency, Huerta will be able to attend the renaming ceremony once it is complete.

The center will continue to serve students by hosting workshops, meetings, and programs to support career development.

For more information about the Labor Center and its programs, visit lbcc.edu/labor-center.

The crew of NASA's Artemis II will make its closest approach to the moon Monday afternoon after launching from Kennedy Space Center last week.

It marks a critical milestone of the agency's Orion space capsule, sending humans on a mission to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. As the capsule loops around the moon, the astronauts will reach farther into space than humans have ever ventured.

NASA will be live streaming the flyby starting at 1 p.m. ET. Watch it here:

The Orion spacecraft is now in the lunar sphere of influence, meaning the moon's gravity has more pull on the vehicle than the Earth. At 1:46 p.m. ET, the crew will surpass the record for the farthest distance traveled from Earth by humans, which was set by the Apollo 13 mission at 248,655 statute miles from Earth. At 2:45 p.m., the crew will begin making observations of the surface of the moon during the flyby.

As the vehicle circles the far side of the moon, communication back to Earth is expected to be blocked for about 40 minutes. At 7:02 p.m., the crew is expected to have reached the mission's maximum distance from Earth at 252,760 statute miles.

The flyby is scheduled to conclude at 9:20 p.m., and then the crew will be on its way home, with a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego, Calif., on Friday at 8:07 p.m.

During the Artemis II flyby, the crew will pass over two previous human lunar landing sites — Apollo 12 and 14.

Lunar science observations

During the lunar flyby, the closest Orion will come to the surface of the moon is 4,070 miles. From that distance, the crew will have a unique vantage point of the moon as a full disc — and the ability to take observations never before seen by human eyes.

NASA scientists have identified about 35 geological features for the crew to observe. Working in pairs, they will take photos of the sites and describe them in real time to scientists at Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"They're going to be absolutely buzzing," said Artemis II lunar science lead Kelsey Young on Sunday. The team will monitor the observations and provide guidance to the crew.

"The science team will get to work right away, kind of synthesizing those [observations], and then we'll actually downlink the rest of the descriptions overnight, in advance of a crew conference we'll have the following morning to continue the science discussion."

Artemis II has 10 science objectives for the flyby. One is to observe color variations on the lunar surface. Changes in color can indicate the composition of the minerals on the surface. These changes are hard to detect with satellite images.

"This is something that human eyes are just incredibly good at teasing out nuances about," said Young.

Satellites like the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which launched in 2009, have given scientists a better understanding of the lunar surface. The Artemis II crew's observations will build on that knowledge.

"We understand, you know, what it's made out of. We understand the topography, but we don't know what the crew are going to see in these specific illumination conditions from a scientific perspective," said Young. "And that's exciting."

NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft's main cabin windows, looking back at Earth on Saturday, as the crew traveled toward the moon.

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The observations will help future landing missions. One target site is a potential future landing area for an uncrewed payload mission. The crew will also get a small glimpse of the lunar south pole — where humans might land as early as 2028.

The mission so far

Artemis II is more than halfway through its slingshot mission around the moon and back. This is a test flight of the Orion space capsule, carrying a human crew for the first time.

"Our mission continues to go incredibly well," said Lori Glaze, who leads NASA's Artemis program.

Tests include manual control of the Orion spacecraft. Mission pilot Victor Glover practiced the maneuverability of the capsule for future rendezvous with lunar landing vehicles.

The crew tested the spacecraft's life support systems, like the carbon dioxide scrubbers, and donned their spacesuits midflight — which future astronauts might have to do in an emergency.

The Artemis II mission is also testing the first deep-space toilet. NASA's Universal Waste Management System is stowed in the floor of Orion and allows the crew to use the bathroom in private. So far, the hardware has had a few hiccups (not having enough water in the bowl and, at a different point, not being able to dump the waste overboard due to a frozen line), but those seem to be resolved.

"We're continuing to proceed with the mission and the use of the toilet nominally," said Artemis II flight director Rick Henfling, meaning the crew is allowed to use the onboard lavatory.
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