U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Oklahoma have teamed up again to arrest dozens of individuals deemed to be illegal aliens – nearly half of whom were truck drivers.
Earlier this week, ICE announced that a two-day operation in Oklahoma that yielded 70 arrests, including 34 truck drivers. According to ICE, 26 of the truck drivers had been improperly issued CDLs while the other eight were operating a commercial motor vehicle without a license.
The latest raid was conducted Oct. 28-29 in Oklahoma. In late September, Oklahoma partnered with ICE to arrest about 125 illegal immigrants.
“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,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Executive Associate Director Marcos Charles said. “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.”
According to ICE, those arrested originated from 15 different countries, including China, Colombia, Georgia, Guatemala, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Venezuela. Additionally, ICE said 36 of the 70 arrested have been convicted of violent crimes and other criminal offenses, including assault and battery, soliciting prostitution and driving under the influence.
“Operation Guardian continues to successfully keep Oklahomans safe,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said. “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.”
ICE also cooperated with Indiana in October to arrest 223 illegal aliens. According to DHS, those arrests included 146 truck drivers.
DOT issues emergency interim final rule
The raids come at a time when the Department of Transportation is cracking down on the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs.
On Sept. 26, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was issuing an emergency interim final rule to prevent unqualified drivers from operating 80,000-pound trucks on the nation’s highways.
“The process for issuing these licenses is absolutely 100% broken,” he said. “It has become a threat to public safety, and it is a national emergency that requires action right now.”
The rule drastically reduces the number of foreign drivers who could be eligible for a CDL. For instance, an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) would no longer be enough to obtain a non-domiciled CDL. Additionally, asylum seekers, asylees, refugees and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients would be excluded from eligibility. The majority of current non-domiciled CDL-holders possessed an EAD. FMCSA estimated that the changes would take about 194,000 current non-domiciled CDL holders out of the trucking industry. LL
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