Operation Checkmate Results in Arrests of 52 Illegal Immigrants, Including 36 Truck Drivers

U.S. authorities arrested 52 illegal immigrants during May 11–15 as part of Operation Checkmate, out of which 36 were working as commercial semi-truck drivers.

“Of the 36 illegal alien semi-truck drivers arrested, 29 were in possession of commercial driver’s licenses from states such as: California, New York, Washington, and Virginia,” the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a June 1 statement. “Three did not possess any form of driver’s license.

“Thirty of the individuals were from India, while the remaining six were from Mexico, El Salvador, and Russia.”

Most of the arrested individuals possessed Employment Authorization Documents, which they secured during the Biden administration, according to the CBP. These documents are no longer valid. All 52 individuals have been processed and will be deported.

The arrests were made by Border Patrol agents from the Yuma Sector in Arizona. Operation Checkmate targets illegal immigrants who operate commercial vehicles.

“Operation Checkmate reflects our commitment to safeguarding communities and roads from unlawfully present drivers who pose significant risks to public safety,” said Dustin W. Caudle, acting chief patrol agent of the Border Patrol’s Yuma sector.

“My agents are on patrol every day to ensure we stop these individuals and prevent more deadly crashes from occurring on the road across the United States.”

The CBP cited a final rule issued by the Department of Transportation (DOT) in February to keep unqualified foreign drivers from securing commercial truck and bus driver’s licenses.

The rule restricts eligibility for nonimmigrant drivers to those with H-2A, H-2B, and E-2 visas who are subjected to “enhanced interagency vetting,” the DOT said in a Feb. 11 statement.

Employment Authorization Documents are no longer accepted as proof of eligibility for driving commercial trucks under the final rule due to “systemic noncompliance” at the state level. Moreover, every applicant’s lawful immigration status will be cross-checked with the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, the department said.

The DOT highlighted that last year, at least 17 fatal crashes and 30 deaths were caused by non-domiciled drivers, referring to drivers who are non-citizens or not living in the state where they got their licenses. Under the final rule, non-domiciled drivers are ineligible for a commercial driver’s license.

For instance, in August, an illegal immigrant truck driver was charged with vehicular homicide after being responsible for a crash that killed three people in Florida.

In October, an illegal immigrant was taken into custody after his commercial truck crashed into several vehicles, killing three people in California. The Indian national was allegedly driving the vehicle under the influence of drugs.

Later in December, a Chinese national who entered the United States illegally was accused of causing an accident that killed one individual and injured two people in Tennessee.

In its latest statement, CBP said the Border Patrol was “working together with federal partners to enforce the rule of law.”

“This will eliminate another magnet for people to illegally come to the U.S., and will strengthen the most secure border in 50 years.”

New York Legal Challenge

In September, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), an agency under the DOT, published an audit finding that thousands of commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) were improperly issued across the nation.

The DOT has taken action against states but has faced legal challenges. In April, the DOT announced withholding $73.5 million in federal funding from New York after determining that the state allegedly failed to revoke CDLs and commercial learner’s permits that were issued to foreign nationals illegally.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he had vowed to hold any state leader accountable for failing to keep citizens safe from “unvetted, unqualified foreign drivers.”

An audit by the FMCSA last year found that over half of the CDLs issued by New York to non-domiciled drivers were issued illegally.

“FMCSA’s mission is safety,” Derek Barrs, administrator of the agency, said in April. “That means ensuring that every commercial driver on the road is properly vetted and qualified. New York’s continued refusal to fix these failures undermines that mission, and we will not allow federal dollars to support a system that falls short of the law.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Kathy Hochul filed a lawsuit seeking to block the “unlawful” cancellation of the funds, according to an April 24 statement from James’s office.

In an addendum filed on April 24, the plaintiffs said the FMCSA  claimed that the New York Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) issued CDLs to foreign nationals with expiration dates that exceeded the drivers’ lawful presence, thus failing to comply with federal requirements.

However, “FMCSA’s determination identifies no relevant federal statute or regulation that imposed such a requirement on DMV during the annual review period in question, or at the time the relevant licenses were issued,” the addendum said.

“Nor does the determination identify any other purported deficiency in DMV’s CDL program warranting a finding of substantial noncompliance.”

The case is ongoing.