Oklahoma Highway Patrol, ICE arrest 34 illegal immigrant truckers with CDLs

Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers have worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest 70 illegal immigrants on the state’s highways during a two-day “special emphasis” operation, a statement from ICE said. Of this, there were 34 illegal immigrants driving commercial vehicles as well as 36 criminal illegal immigrants.

Many of the commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) were granted from Democrat-led states such as California, Illinois and New York. These unqualified drivers are putting lives at risk, officials warned.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Executive Associate Director Marcos Charles said, “For the second time in just the past month, the state of Oklahoma and ICE have banded together to bolster public safety along Oklahoma’s highways, identifying and apprehending illegal aliens who are in the country illegally and have been recklessly issued a commercial driver’s license by states like California, Illinois, and New Jersey.”

“Many of the illegal aliens arrested behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer can’t even read basic English, endangering everyone they encounter on the roads,” he added.

Last month, Oklahoma highway patrol officers and ICE ERO officers had a 3-day operation where they arrested 120 illegal immigrants, including 91 commercial vehicle drivers. ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said at the time, “ICE’s 287(g) program clearly demonstrates how federal and local law enforcement agencies can work together to make America safe again. Illegal aliens have no business operating 18 wheelers on America’s highways. Our roads are now safer with these illegal aliens no longer behind the wheel.”

Most of these drivers had obtained CDL licenses from California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said, “Operation Guardian continues to successfully keep Oklahomans safe,” and added “to lawfully operate a commercial motor vehicle in Oklahoma, you must be here legally, and you must be able to understand English. These are common sense standards that we will continue to enforce.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced last month that his department planned to withhold $160 million in funding from California due to the state’s failure to comply with federal regulations regarding issuance of CDLs. Duffy also said that there was an option to pull “California’s ability to issue commercial driver’s licenses.”

This came after an illegal immigrant operating a semi-truck in Florida killed 3 people in August after making an illegal U-turn. The driver, Harjinder Singh, entered the US illegally in 2018 via the southern border. After the accident, Singh failed an English Language proficiency test, only accurately identifying one of four traffic signs and correctly answering only two of 12 verbal questions.