The Department of Homeland Security recently announced that a raid on I-40 in Oklahoma resulted in the arrest of Anmol "No Name Given," a CDL holder from New York State.
"Want to know how CORRUPT sanctuary New York City is?" DHS tweeted. "They handed out a COMMERCIAL DRIVER’S LICENSE to an illegal alien and actually issued it to 'No Name Given.'"
If the "No Name Given" story sounds familiar, that's because it's old news. Overdrive in July reported the story of a driver found in a cargo theft scheme with a "No Name Given" California CDL and the Golden State responded that it had followed all federal guidelines.
Right after the I-40 immigration raid from September 22-25, Overdrive contacted New York State, which also said it didn't do anything wrong in issuing a CDL to someone with only one name.
"This commercial driver’s license was issued in accordance with all proper procedures, including verification of the individual’s identity through federally issued documentation," New York's DMV said of Anmol No Name Given's CDL.
Furthermore, New York DMV said Anmol "has lawful status in the United States through a federal employment authorization and was issued a license consistent with federal guidelines."
This directly clashes with what DHS said in a press release, that record checks "conducted by ICE revealed Anmol is an illegal alien from India."
ICE arrested him and placed him in removal proceedings, according to the release, which said he entered the U.S. illegally in 2023 and was released by the Biden administration into the country.
That's probably the point where the misunderstanding occurred. The Biden administration allowed for people who crossed the southern border undetected to get legal status, whereas the Trump administration typically brands those people "illegal aliens," and has even started fining them $5,000. The Trump administration's view has led to two million illegal aliens removed or self-deported in just 250 days, according to a DHS release.
On the subject of only having one name, New York DMV said it "is not uncommon for individuals from other countries to have only one name" and that procedures for that are clearly spelled out in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policy manual. New York even provided a sample Employee Authorization Document that listed someone's name as "No Name Given."
As long as the documents a state gets match the documents on file with the feds, states like New York and California, potentially any others too, would go ahead and issue the CDL.
That doesn't sound like the "corruption" DHS alleged on social media.
In DOT's recent emergency rule effectively trying to push 200,000 non-domiciled CDL holders out of industry, it called out six states for failing to follow federal guidelines in CDL issuance. New York wasn't one of them.
Overdrive asked DHS what exactly it meant by the "corruption" allegation, but DHS did not address the question.
Corruption definitely happens in CDL issuance. Just last week the District Attorney of Nassau County in New York indicted three New York State Department of Motor Vehicles workers, "including a former supervisor, and others charged in 51-count indictment for allegedly processing commercial driver’s license permit exams for no-show applicants."
But at the federal level, there's nothing illegal or corrupt about issuing a CDL to "No Name Given." If federal authorities want to end that practice, it's unclear why they'd go through New York or California.
