Federal and state authorities arrested nearly 250 foreign commercial truck drivers in November alone, warning that cartel operatives and foreign nationals are exploiting America’s commercial driver licensing system to infiltrate freight corridors and endanger national security.
Governor Greg Abbott announced Thursday that 31 illegal immigrant truck drivers—many holding commercial driver’s licenses issued in California—were apprehended along I‑40 during a one‑day enforcement sweep by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and federal partners. The joint operation targeted suspicious CDLs and unsafe vehicles, underscoring Abbott’s warning that California’s practice of licensing illegal immigrants poses risks to motorists nationwide.
Border Patrol agents in Arizona arrested an illegal alien from Uzbekistan who was allegedly operating a tractor-trailer on Interstate 10 with five fraudulent driver’s licenses. The Uzbek national illegally entered the United States during the Biden administration and ignored an order of removal this year from an immigration judge.
Oklahoma law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 70 illegal aliens in a targeted highway sweep, including 34 caught unlawfully operating commercial vehicles. Many had obtained CDLs from sanctuary states, such as California, Illinois, and New York, despite lacking legal status or basic English proficiency. Officials warn that these policies are putting lives at risk by enabling unqualified drivers to operate massive tractor-trailers across state lines.
A joint traffic enforcement blitz along I-40 in western Oklahoma led to the arrest of 120 immigration violators—91 of whom were operating commercial vehicles. The arrests underscore the public safety risks posed by unlicensed or unauthorized drivers on America’s highways. The three-day operation, conducted by ICE and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, targeted criminal activity and threats to roadway safety through intensified patrols and records checks.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Department of Public Safety to “Strictly Enforce English Proficiency Requirements For Commercial Drivers.” The order follows recent coverage by Breitbart Texas of the Lone Star State leading the nation in having truck drivers removed from service for not being proficient in English.
Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents rescued a group of nearly 24 migrants who were locked inside a tractor-trailer earlier this week. The discovery came as the truck driver allegedly attempted to smuggle the migrants through the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint in Brooks County, Texas.
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers found a group of migrants locked inside a tractor-trailer near Laredo on September 14. Troopers found the tractor-trailer driver did not have a commercial driver’s license.
Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) officers rescued 206 Central American migrants trapped in a sealed semi-tractor trailer. The Guatemalan and Honduran migrants, including women and children, told authorities cartel smugglers drugged them to inhibit the urge to use a bathroom during the trip. The migrants were encountered in the Mexican state of Veracruz on Saturday evening.
A potential tragedy was averted in the small border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, when Maverick County Sheriff’s Office deputies stopped a tractor-trailer on Thursday. After noting suspicious behavior by the truck driver and noises coming from the trailer, the deputies searched the pneumatic tank trailer being towed by the driver and located 18 migrants sealed inside.
A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper working in Laredo, Texas, observed a group of people suspected to be in the U.S. illegally get into the back of a commercial tractor-trailer. The trooper, working under Operation Lone Star stopped the truck for an inspection and found 11 people.
Texas sheriff’s deputies responded with Border Patrol agents after receiving a tip about a suspicious tractor-trailer in a residential neighborhood near the border. The law enforcement team found 84 migrants who had been offloaded from the 18-wheeler.
Immigration officials in Mexico found 266 migrants packed into the double bottoms of three tractor-trailers. The migrants came from seven different countries and included 20 unaccompanied minors.
A South Texas man will spend five years in prison for smuggling 31 migrants inside a frigid trailer. The smuggler hid the migrants inside a refrigerated trailer behind a load of broccoli bound for Florida.
Mexican government immigration officials found a group of 150 migrants locked inside a tractor-trailer headed to the Texas-Mexico border. Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents coordinated with the Mexican authorities to rescue the migrants from the life-threatening situation.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Department of Public Safety to begin inspections of commercial trucks to prevent their utilization as human smuggling vehicles. The move follows the deaths of 53 migrants this week who were locked inside a tractor-trailer rig in San Antonio.
Police near San Antonio report that 46 migrants are dead and at least 16 others were transported to local hospitals after being locked inside a tractor-trailer. A worder found the tractor-trailer on the southwest side of San Antonio on a back road near Interstate 35.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents rescued a group of 80 migrants locked inside a tractor-trailer by a human smuggler. The agents found the migrants during an inspection at an interior immigration checkpoint in Texas.
La Salle County Sheriff deputies responded to frantic 911 calls from migrants being smuggled in a semi-tractor trailer near Encinal, Texas, on Friday. Dispatchers could hear screams from migrants trapped inside the closed trailer traveling north and away from the border on Interstate 35. When the vehicle was encountered, two migrants were dead and 111 were apprehended after an exhaustive search.
Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 67 migrants in five failed human smuggling events on May 3. In one of the incidents, agents found 25 migrants packed in a tractor-trailer hauling a load of onions.
Big Bend Sector Border Patrol agents may have saved the lives of 48 migrants locked inside a tractor-trailer near Sierra Blanca, Texas, on Saturday. Agents found the migrants during an inspection at the Interstate 10 immigration checkpoint.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents interdicted nine human smuggling attempts utilizing tractor-trailer rigs during the past week. The searches of the trailers led to the apprehension of nearly 500 migrants from this single method of conveyance.
El Paso Sector Border Patrol officials report a trend where adult migrants attempt to pass themselves off as unaccompanied minors. The agents uncovered 23 such attempts so far this fiscal year.
Border Patrol agents in South Texas apprehended more than 270 migrants packed in tractor-trailers at interior immigration checkpoints during the past week. The arrests took place in five separate smuggling incidents.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents interdicted a human smuggling incident involving a tractor-trailer. After the driver attempted to flee, agents eventually found 115 migrants, including three children, locked inside the trailer.
At least five people were killed in a massive pile-up car in Missouri involving 70 or more vehicles, according to reports.
Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents arrested three human smugglers and apprehended two groups of migrants locked inside commercial trailers. The arrests took place at the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint in Brooks County, Texas, approximately 80 miles north of the Texas-Mexico border.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents disrupted multiple human smuggling schemes in the last days of 2021, officials reported. In many, smugglers placed the migrants in life-threatening situations.
Photos tweeted by U.S. Border Patrol officials this week show the filthy and dangerous conditions human smugglers force upon migrants. The photos show the conditions of stash houses discovered along the southwest border.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents found nearly 70 migrants locked inside two vacuum tanker trucks in separate incidents. The human smuggling attempts failed when Border Patrol K-9s detected human cargo in the tankers at an immigration checkpoint near Freer, Texas.
Footage caught the moment an 18-wheeler dragged a sedan down a Chicago-area highway after the car became wedged beneath the tractor-trailer.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents recovered nearly 100 migrants from a locked tractor-trailer rig at an immigration checkpoint between the Mexican border and San Antonio. The agents made the discovery after a K-9 alerted to the possible presence of drug or human cargo in the trailer.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents found two groups of migrants locked inside tractor-trailer rigs near the Texas border with Mexico.
Big Bend Sector Border Patrol agents working an immigration checkpoint near Sierra Blanca, Texas, found a group of 31 migrants hiding in a tractor-trailer loaded with crushed aluminum cans.
El Paso Sector Border Patrol agents found a group of migrants locked inside a tractor-trailer near Las Cruces, New Mexico, last week. The locked trailer contained 69 migrants who had no means of escape.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents and local police officers discovered 120 migrants locked inside an abandoned tractor-trailer rig late last month. The group included five unaccompanied minors.
Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers found a large group of migrants locked inside a tractor-trailer near the U.S.-Mexico Border. Smugglers packed the 105 migrants shoulder-to-shoulder.
Human smugglers abandoned a tractor-trailer carrying 233 Central American migrants headed for the Texas-Mexico border. The trailer is the latest incident in a resurgent trend of moving large groups of migrants at a time. The failed smuggling attempt took place this week in the Mexican coastal state of Veracruz.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents found a previously deported sex offender hiding with a group of smuggled migrants in a tractor-trailer. The discovery came at an interior immigration enforcement checkpoint over the weekend where agents disrupted two human smuggling events and arrested 138 migrants.
Traficantes de personas pusieron a 71 migrantes, incluyendo a un niño de dos años de edad, en la caja de tráiler en un intento de llegar a la frontera con Texas. El conductor del vehículo, que aparentemente está relacionado con el Cártel del Golfo de México, se paso un puesto de control policial en el estado fronterizo de Nuevo León e incluso peleó con la policía mientras intentaba escapar.
