Texas DPS arrests 31 illegal CDL drivers in one day, majority from California

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) – In one day, Texas Department of Public Safety officers arrested 31 illegal foreign nationals during a commercial vehicle enforcement operation with federal authorities in the Texas panhandle. 

"Millions of Texans drive on our highways, roads, and streets every day," Gov. Greg Abbott said. "When illegal immigrants break the law and illegally drive on our roads, they endanger the lives of countless Texans and Americans. This joint state and federal operation along one of the nation’s longest transcontinental highways removed illegal drivers and unsafe vehicles from Texas roads. 

“While liberal states like California issue licenses to illegal immigrants and risk the lives of Americans, Texas will work with our federal partners to maintain safe roads and apprehend illegal immigrants to protect our communities.” 

The operation occurred along I-40 in Wheeler County in the panhandle. The rural county borders Oklahoma and has a population of less than 5,000. 

I-40 is a major thoroughfare that runs west-east through the panhandle in northern Texas. It takes roughly 2.5 hours to drive across the panhandle on I-40, from the New Mexico-Texas state line on the west to the Texas-Oklahoma border on the east. The only large city along the highway is Amarillo. Amarillo is roughly a four-hour drive to Albuquerque and 3.5-hour drive to Oklahoma City. 

DPS is partnering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to conduct CDL enforcement operations statewide. The goal is to identify individuals with suspicious CDLs when conducting commercial vehicle inspections, DPS says. 

In the one-day panhandle operation, officers performed 105 commercial vehicle inspections. The majority of drivers they arrested had California CDLs, DPS said.

None of the illegal foreign nationals they arrested had Texas issued CDLs, DPS said. 

The Texas DPS-ICE operation was similar to operations conducted along I-40 in Oklahoma by Oklahoma Highway Patrol and ICE. In one recent operation, they arrested 120 illegal foreign nationals; 91 were operating a commercial vehicle with a CDL, The Center Square reported.

Many of them had criminal records, including convictions for multiple DUIs, illegal re-entry into the U.S., money laundering, human smuggling, assault, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession of a controlled substance, ICE said.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has touted OHP and ICE efforts to ensure highway safety. “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,” he’s explained.

Many of the drivers arrested in Oklahoma were citizens of Tajikistan, India, El Salvador, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine and Mexico, among others, authorities found. The majority had CDLs issued from California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Washington, they found. 

“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,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Executive Associate Director Marcos Charles said after the second ICE-Oklahoma operation was conducted earlier this month. 

Stitt has long supported border security efforts, including being among the first governors to send National Guard troops and resources to Texas to support Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star. At the height of the border crisis, 26 governors supported Texas' efforts not just in OLS but also in lawsuits filed against the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.

Earlier this year, Abbott directed the DPS troopers to crack down on commercial driver English proficiency. Within three months, DPS and partner agencies had taken enforcement actions against 445 commercial vehicle drivers in Texas for English proficiency violations, The Center Square reported.  

In September, DPS also suspended issuing certain CDLs in response to a new emergency rule issued by the Trump administration and after a federal audit uncovered systemic non-compliance in several states, including Texas, where it said licensing patterns were “not consistent with federal regulations,” The Center Square reported.