A trending story about nearly 300 "illegal migrant" truck drivers getting stopped and prosecuted in Indiana in the last three months has spread like wildfire across a dozen news publications and even a Senator's Twitter account.
But it's almost certainly false.
A look at how the falsehood wound through a game of telephone shows just how far and fast fake news spreads in 2026.
It also shows how important it is to have media around trucking that actually knows what it's talking about.
It all started on Sunday with the Chicago Tribune dutifully reporting on a May 21 meeting of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission's executive board.
The paper cites Tony Ferraro, an aide to Indiana Governor Mike Braun and a board member of NIRPC, saying that over "90 days, 283 undocumented immigrants driving trucks were stopped in Northwest Indiana."
Next, the New York Post wrote up an article entitled "Nearly 300 illegal migrants with commercial licenses from NY and Calif. stopped, prosecuted in Indiana."
Fox News runs a quick cable news segment hit repeating the state was "arresting nearly 300 illegal migrants with commercial driver's licenses over the last three months" with California and New York licenses "where migrants are allowed to carry" CDLs.
It gets more and more political and overstated from there. "Indiana Prosecutes 283 Illegal Alien Truck Drivers Given Licenses by Blue States," the Tennesee Star wrote, citing the New York Post (who cited Chicago Tribune, who cited an aide to the Indiana Governor).
By noon on Monday, the internet had well and truly worked itself into a lather with posts like the below one from an account with nearly 1 million followers on Twitter. WAKE UP AMERICA!
As of Tuesday morning, outlets like Newsmax were still publishing, nearly verbatim, about the 283 "Undocumented Truck Drivers Stopped in Inspections."
As previously stated, the story isn't really true, but even five-times-warmed-over baloney began with a kernel of truth.
Rather than repeat the New York Post, Overdrive went all the way back to the NIRPC executive board meeting where Ferraro gave the now famous comments. Turns out, the Chicago Tribune got the story wrong to begin with. The New York Post amped it up and further botched a few details, and by Tuesday Indiana Senator Jim Banks himself was repeating the falsehoods.
Here's what Ferraro actually said, emphasis ours:
"In combination with [Customs and Border Patrol] and [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] last year, and we had a presser for that here in Gary, we pulled 283 illegal alien truck drivers, noncitizen truck drivers, just out of northwest Indiana over the course of a 90-day enforcement action."
So what Ferraro is really saying at this board meeting, with 28 views on Youtube and maybe 60 people in attendance, is that last year there was a 90-day enforcement blitz in Northwest Indiana that pulled 283 illegal alien drivers off the road.
That sounds pretty close to the story making the rounds on social media, but tracking the telephone game backward doesn't stop there.
First of all, this was last year, and something announced at a press conference in Gary, Indiana, which happened on October 30. It's pretty well documented.
The enforcement blitz was called Operation Midway Blitz, which former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said resulted in the arrest of not 283 but "223 illegal aliens on Indiana highways near the Illinois state line -- including 146 truck drivers."
How many of those drivers had CDLs? Just more than 40, DHS said at the time.
Of course, Indiana State Police are still partnered with federal immigration enforcement through the 287(g) program, as Ferraro made clear.
It's entirely possible ISP did pull 283 "illegal alien" truck drivers off the road since October. But that's not what Ferraro said, and it would be odd for an aide to the governor to make that remark an hour and two minutes into a Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission executive board meeting.
[Related: 'Every foreign truck driver's worst nightmare': Courts can't stop Trump, DOT's immigration crackdown]
The full DHS release from October has lots of details about the drivers, their alleged offenses, and the states that issued their CDLs (California and New York for sure among them), but Indiana issued non-domiciled CDLs to non-citizens too, a little more than 5,000 since 2019, according to Overdrive reporting in July 2025.
So 146 illegal truck drivers arrested in October 2025 became "nearly 300" in the last three months by May of 2026.
Under the "aggressive" new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which has vowed to work with DHS for roadside immigration enforcement and already issued a rule banning non-domiciled CDLs, there's plenty of news of truckers getting shut down.
Overdrive just published an exclusive story about 283 CDL drivers put out-of-service in Oregon for ELD cheating.
[Related: Oregon DOT puts 283 ELD cheats out-of-service]
There's really no reason to make up stories. It's no conspiracy. A lot of the more mainstream media or siren-blaring, eye-popping social media accounts are, in fact, fake news.
When you can, try to hear directly from the source, and if not, keep in mind that Overdrive will go there for you.
