For the second time in a little more than a month, federal and Oklahoma state law enforcement officers conducted a sting operation aimed at apprehending people in the country without legal documentation, and in the process took a number of commercial motor vehicle drivers off the road.
A statement from Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said members of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a 15-hour operation over two days along Interstate 40 near the Arkansas border.During the special operation, about 500 people were interviewed and 70 of them were found to be in the U.S. without proper documentation.
Among those arrested were 34 truck drivers. A previous similar enforcement effort in western Oklahoma led to the arrests of 130 truck drivers.
Additional arrests included individuals with active felony warrants, including one confirmed INTERPOL warrant, according to a statement from the governor's office.
“Operation Guardian continues to successfully keep Oklahomans safe,” said Stitt. “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.”
Last week's operation comes after a similar one in September, during which OHP officers conducted a 30-hour operation with ICE along I-40 in western Oklahoma. That operation resulted in 520 contacts and 120 arrests of illegal aliens, including 91 commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers, with criminal histories including DUI, illegal re-entry, money laundering, human smuggling, assault, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and possession of controlled substances.
“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,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Executive Associate Director Marcos Charles. “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 the OHP, the countries of origin for the illegal aliens arrested during these two emphases include: Tajikistan, India, Montenegro, El Salvador, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, China, Pakistan, Russia, Belarus, Haiti, Ukraine, Türkiye, Meri Tamia, Cuba, Guatemala, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Columbia, and Mexico. States having issued the CDLs for the illegal aliens arrested during the two operations include: California, Washington, Pennsylvania, Illinois, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey, Texas, Minnesota, Ohio, and New York.
The two Oklahoma enforcement efforts come after several several major highway collisions involving tractor-trailers driven by individuals who had entered the country illegally. They were also part of the continuing crackdown on immigrants by ICE across the country.
