The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed ramped-up raids on interstates, weigh stations and truck stops, resulting in some high-profile arrests and sending shockwaves through trucking.
While trucking companies and truck drivers have long dealt with the Department of Transportation and state police partners enforcing rules, those rarely ever touched on immigration enforcement.
Now, with DHS unleashing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations, drivers are noticing more raids on the interstate.
“ICE is targeting individuals who are unlawfully present and investigating fraud that puts unqualified drivers behind the wheels of commercial vehicles," a spokesperson told Overdrive. "This is common sense."
One such on-interstate raid came on September 4, when "an ICE officer with Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Philadelphia was conducting inspections of commercial vehicles at a weigh station in Newberry, Pennsylvania." That officer found Simranpal Singh, "an illegal alien from India" with a New York-issued CDL.
According to ICE, Singh had an outstanding warrant for wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy out of the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
In DHS's recent Joint Task Force Crossroads of America, which included DOT and state attorneys, the department announced several trucking-specific enforcement actions.
Not only did DHS "conduct a synchronized surge at more than 200 driving schools," it also beefed up presence at weigh stations. Specifically, DHS collaborated with Indiana State Police for an enforcement push "from August 25-27 focused on weigh stations and including ERO/DOT officers," as well as planned actions in Maine, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
DHS also said it had started a investigation into the Employment Eligibility Verification form of a driver who had hit and killed a state police officer.
But it seems like DHS had been present roadside well before that. On August 23, ICE Newark officers arrested Zokhid Zakhidov, an "illegal alien from Uzbekistan," in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Zakhidov, who held a New York commercial learner's permit, had a DUI conviction and pending charges for assault with intent to cause physical injury and harassment dating back to January, ICE said.
The DHS spokesperson attributed the new enforcement actions to fatal crashes and the "CDL mill" problem, though Overdrive reporting has revealed some of the CDL schools accused of wrongdoing aren't even accused of breaking any established rules.
“Following deadly crashes involving unqualified illegal-alien drivers, ICE is cracking down on those operating commercial vehicles unlawfully and bad actors who help them fraudulently obtain licenses," the DHS spokesperson continued.
CDL schools shut down by DOT as part of the Joint Task Force included 110 that had simply graduated drivers who went on to get English language proficiency (ELP) violations. In the week that followed, some of the biggest CDL schools in the country were issued notice of proposed removal from the Training Provider Registry for what they described as paperwork errors.
[Related: ICE opens tip line with DOT for 'CDL fraud' crackdown]
“It is incredibly dangerous for illegal aliens, who often don’t know our traffic laws or even English, to be operating vehicles on America’s roads," the DHS spokesperson continued. "These sanctuary politicians must stop giving illegal aliens driver’s licenses before another American gets killed."
Giving some context to the scope of the removals, the spokesperson said "more than 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations. As of September 7, we have now deported nearly 1.1 million illegal aliens and arrested over 1.1 million illegal aliens.”
Industry analysts have begun to note a slight capacity crunch due to English language and immigration enforcement, but the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's recent rulemaking banning non-domiciled CDLs may soon be overturned in a federal court.
[Related: Lujan v. FMCSA: Non-domiciled CDLs in court, full arguments for and against]
