U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) teamed up with the Oklahoma Freeway Patrol (OHP) for a three-day operation that resulted within the arrest of 120 unlawful aliens.
The operation, carried out from September 22 to 25 alongside Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma, highlighted the effectiveness of ICE’s 287(g) program, which permits native regulation enforcement to help in figuring out and detaining people who violate immigration legal guidelines.
In the course of the particular emphasis on site visitors enforcement, OHP made round 520 contacts, with ICE officers working data checks on foreign-born nationals encountered throughout routine patrols.
Of the 120 arrested:
- Ninety-one had been working business motor autos with Industrial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs). These people hailed from nations together with India (39), China (12), Uzbekistan (13), and others corresponding to Russia, Georgia, and Türkiye. Many had been overstays, had pending asylum claims, or had entered illegally. Shockingly, their CDLs had been issued primarily by blue states: California (44), New York (14), Pennsylvania (12), and Illinois (11), with a couple of issued by different states, corresponding to New Jersey and Florida.
- Twenty-seven had been arrested from passenger autos throughout site visitors stops: Most had been from Mexico (15) and Guatemala (10), with others from China and Cuba. Seventeen had entered illegally with no prior document, 9 had been beforehand deported (six a number of instances), and one had been denied a visa earlier than sneaking in. Twenty-three of them entered the U.S. between 2020 and 2024.
- Two had been taken into custody from a close-by marijuana develop operation.
Many of those unlawful aliens had critical felony histories, together with a number of DUIs, illegal reentry into the U.S., cash laundering, human smuggling, assault, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and possession of managed substances.
This operation underscores the risks posed by unchecked unlawful immigration, particularly when it includes people driving large 18-wheelers on American highways.
ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan praised the partnership in a press release, stating, “ICE’s 287(g) program clearly demonstrates how federal and native regulation enforcement companies can work collectively to make America protected once more,” mentioned Madison Sheahan, ICE Deputy Director. “Unlawful aliens haven’t any enterprise working 18 wheelers on America’s highways. Our roads at the moment are safer with these unlawful aliens now not behind the wheel. We encourage extra state and native regulation enforcement to signal 287(g) agreements to assist take away public security threats and obtain reimbursement funds accessible to our regulation enforcement companions.”
As famous within the launch, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy has taken emergency action to limit non-domiciled CDLs for non-citizens, requiring stricter guidelines like employment-based visas and federal immigration checks by way of the SAVE system.
“What our group has found ought to disturb and anger each American,” mentioned Duffy in a press launch.
Duffy continued, “Licenses to function an enormous, 80,000-pound truck are being issued to harmful overseas drivers – usually instances illegally. This can be a direct menace to the protection of each household on the street, and I received’t stand for it. In the present day’s actions will forestall unsafe overseas drivers from renewing their license and maintain states accountable to instantly invalidate improperly issued licenses.”
Strikes like this are essential in combating the Biden-era border disaster that allowed so many of those people to enter and acquire licenses within the first place.
