Federal immigration agents have been busy up and down Southern California’s freight corridors, hauling in 87 commercial truck drivers in a recent series of coordinated enforcement sweeps. The operations, led by U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations, zeroed in on drivers who held commercial driver’s licenses while already on the federal immigration radar.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the push unfolded in two main waves. On Nov. 23, the El Centro Border Patrol sector ran checkpoints near Indio along Highways 86 and 111, detaining 42 commercial drivers. Then on Dec. 10, an ICE Homeland Security Investigations operation nicknamed “Highway Sentinel” added 45 more arrests in and around Ontario and Fontana.
Of the 42 drivers picked up in the Indio-area sweep, 30 were from India and two were from El Salvador, the Bee reported. Thirty-one carried California-issued commercial licenses, while others had CDLs from states including Florida, Illinois and New York. Federal officials have framed the actions as part of a broader interior enforcement strategy that leans on highway checkpoints and joint agency operations.
How the raids land in a statewide showdown
The timing is not accidental. The sweeps arrive in the middle of a standoff between California and federal regulators over commercial licenses held by noncitizens. In November, state officials moved to cancel about 17,000 CDLs after identifying licenses with expiration dates that stretched past drivers’ authorized periods of stay in the country. Federal regulators have argued the review was necessary for safety and regulatory compliance. That step, and the audit behind it, has pulled fresh federal scrutiny onto how states confirm immigration status and work authorization before issuing commercial licenses, with the AP News noting threats of funding penalties and tighter rules that could further limit which noncitizens are eligible for CDLs…