A three-day federal operation resulted in 137 individuals being detained or arrested across four states in the Midwest United States, as part of the second wave of the Operation Highway Shield, a joint initiative by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) aimed at unqualified truck drivers or those with irregular immigration status.
The operation took place from July 28 to 30 in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio, involving agents from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division of ICE, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), and state highway patrols.
Of the 137 individuals detained, 51 were irregular immigrants, including 21 drivers holding commercial driver's licenses (CDL) that were not issued locally, granted by California and New York to individuals not residing in those states, a practice that the federal government deems irregular.
The others 86 were arrested for dangerous behavior, including incidents of road rage and domestic violence.
In addition to the arrests, the operation removed 766 unsafe drivers and vehicles from circulation, issued 36 citations for failing English competency tests, and recovered nearly one million dollars in stolen cargo.
The preliminary results were announced on Tuesday by the DHS Secretary, Markwayne Mullin, and the Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy.
"When illegal immigrants are behind the wheel of 18-wheel trucks, they endanger American lives," said Mullin, who emphasized that more than 800 dangerous truck drivers have been removed from the country's roads between the two waves of the operation.
Duffy, for his part, was more direct in his warning: "If you keep operating a cargo truck illegally, your days on the streets of America are numbered."
This second operation adds to the one carried out in Florida from March 23 to 26, which included over 3,300 inspections of commercial vehicles, 35 criminal arrests, and 42 immigration actions.
In July, the DHS and DOT also announced a specific partnership to investigate fraud at CDL schools.
The Cuban community in the United States, with a significant presence in the freight transportation industry, has been affected by these operations.
In September 2025, a Cuban truck driver was arrested in Oklahoma during a joint raid by the ICE and the Highway Patrol of that state, where more than 120 undocumented immigrants were apprehended, 91 of whom held CDLs.
Months later, a Cuban truck driver with legal residency alerted the community about ICE checkpoints on the I-75, warning that carrying the residency card was essential: "If I hadn't had this today, they would have detained me."
The tightening of regulations in the freight transportation sector is partly a response to high-profile fatal accidents involving foreign truck drivers in irregular situations. This led the DOT to restrict, as of September 2025, the eligibility for obtaining a CDL as a non-citizen to holders of H-2A, H-2B, and E-2 visas, valid for a maximum of one year, with mandatory immigration verification in federal databases.
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