The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested José Carlos Valdivia-Vera in Florida, an undocumented Cuban citizen who was working as a truck driver despite having an expired commercial driver's license and being subject to a final deportation order.
The arrest took place on August 6 and was carried out by agents from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Jacksonville, according to a report on Tuesday from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
According to the authorities, Valdivia-Vera had a temporary commercial driver's license valid for one year, but the document expired on June 6, two months before his arrest.
The Cuban also had against him a final deportation order issued by an immigration judge from the Department of Justice.
The DHS did not specify when or how Valdivia-Vera entered the United States, but stated that he was in the country illegally.
After the arrest, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin stated that the Cuban will be expelled from the United States and warned that authorities will continue to pursue undocumented drivers and the companies that hire them.
"Every time an undocumented immigrant gets behind the wheel of a truck, they put countless American lives at risk," stated Mullin.
"Thanks to the hard work of ICE agents, this undocumented Cuban immigrant, who had a commercial driver's license, is no longer driving on our roads. He will be expelled from the country and will no longer be able to endanger innocent lives on our streets," he added.
The official also stated, "We will relentlessly pursue all undocumented truck drivers and the companies that employ them."
Operations against undocumented truckers
The arrest is part of a U.S. government initiative to identify undocumented immigrants driving commercial vehicles and to investigate possible irregularities in the issuance of licenses.
In early August, the DHS announced the results of the second phase of Operation Highway Shield, conducted in collaboration with the Department of Transportation.
According to the authorities, more than 800 commercial drivers were removed from the roads in just three days, including 51 undocumented immigrants.
Both agencies also announced in July a collaboration to investigate commercial driver training schools suspected of fraudulently facilitating the acquisition of licenses.
The DHS has linked the tightening of controls to several fatal accidents involving undocumented truck drivers, including an incident in Pennsylvania in July 2026 that resulted in the death of a state trooper, and a head-on collision that left four dead in Indiana last February.
More than 4,000 deportation orders against Cubans in Florida
The arrest of Valdivia-Vera comes at a time when deportation orders against Cubans in Florida have increased.
Between October 2025 and June 2026, immigration courts issued 4,007 deportation orders against Cuban citizens in that state. In June alone, 1,642 orders were issued against Cubans across the United States, according to data from the TRAC system at Syracuse University.
Detentions have also surged. According to figures from last April, ICE increased arrests of Cuban migrants by 463% between late 2024 and early 2026.
Additionally, figures from the DHS corresponding to November 2025 indicated that there were more than 42,000 Cubans with final deportation orders pending execution in the United States.
The case of Valdivia-Vera reflects two priorities that immigration authorities have intensified in recent months: executing pending deportation orders and removing from the roads commercial drivers who do not meet the immigration or legal requirements to perform that work.
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