Historically, ICE has primarily gone after illegal immigrants who are released from local jails or employed illegally.
In recent months, as the Trump administration has continued to push the Department of Homeland Security agency to arrest a greater number of illegal immigrants, ICE has gone after commercial truck drivers.
The growing focus on illegal immigrant truck drivers came in early fall, but the Trump administration’s crackdown has been months in the making.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said illegal immigrants in trucking jobs present a distinct safety concern to the public.
“We recognized from the start that this must include protecting roadways carrying interstate traffic and cargo,” Lyons said in a statement. “In recent weeks, we have seen illegal semi-truck drivers responsible for significant loss of life across the country. This was preventable, and that is precisely why we are working to ensure this doesn’t happen in Indiana or Illinois.”
In May, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy implemented new guidance to enforce the English language proficiency requirement for truck drivers as part of a broader federal effort to ensure they can read and follow road signs.
According to the DOT, a previous investigation by the Federal Motor Safety Administration uncovered “significant failures” by California, New Mexico, and Washington to mark drivers “out of service” for English language proficiency violations.
California Highway Patrol has publicly stated that it does not intend to follow the federal regulation.
In August, Florida police identified an illegal immigrant, Harjinder Singh, as the driver of an 18-wheeler truck who caused a fatal crash in St. Lucie County that resulted in the deaths of three people.
Singh had ignored a road sign that showed no U-turns were permitted at the place where he attempted to make an illegal U-turn.
The Trump administration threatened to pull millions of dollars of federal funding from blue states, including California, New Mexico, and Washington, unless the states adopt and enforce English language proficiency requirements for commercial drivers.
This past Wednesday, ICE announced that it had detained 34 illegal immigrant truck drivers off the highways in Oklahoma following a two-day crackdown alongside the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
Of those arrested, 26 drivers had obtained a driver’s license to operate a commercial vehicle from states that identify as sanctuary zones, or places that largely do not turn over illegal immigrants in police custody to ICE.
Eight of the drivers were found to be operating commercial vehicles without any form of identification that legally permitted them to drive such a vehicle.
Weeks earlier, a partnership between ICE and Oklahoma led to 91 arrests of illegal immigrants operating trucks on highways in the state.
“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,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Associate Director Marcos Charles said in a statement.
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Again in October, ICE blitzed the highways in northwest Indiana and found 46 illegal immigrant truck drivers.
Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) said the state was continuing to assist ICE because it recognized that having people driving illegally put residents of his state at risk.
“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,” Stitt said in a statement.
