Oklahoma Troopers Arrest Alleged Undocumented Truckers

KOSU reported on October 1 that, “Oklahoma troopers arrest more than 100 people in 3‑day immigration blitz.”

According to KOSU, a public radio station in Oklahoma:

  • Over a three‑day operation, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and its partners arrested 120 people.

  • The operation took place at a weigh‑station/port of entry in Beckham County (just east of the Texas border) along Interstate 40.

  • 520 commercial truck drivers were screened; of those stopped, nearly 1 in 4 were found to be in the country illegally.

  • Most of the arrested individuals were commercial truck drivers: about 90 of the 120. Their vehicles were impounded and would be reclaimed by paying towing/storage fees.

  • The alleged undocumented immigrants hailed from more than 18 countries; a state official said all allegedly entered the U.S. through the southern border.

  • The arrests are part of a broader initiative in Oklahoma called Operation Guardian, announced earlier by Kevin Stitt (Governor of Oklahoma). Under the initiative, every Highway Patrol trooper has been authorized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to interrogate, arrest, and detain individuals suspected of being in the country illegally.

  • Oklahoma Department of Public Safety Commissioner Tim Tipton said the model “absolutely will be a sustained model.”

I’m curious to see this pans out in the coming months:

1. How many of the drivers will turn out to be genuinely undocumented? “No Name,” a pointed made in the linked new story, is sometimes used on driver’s licenses to indicate non-standard names that are not amenable to English or names that lack last names.

2. Whether any 42 USC sec. 1983 cases get filed against Oklahoma officials claiming violation of the law in making false arrests under the guise of enforcing state law and federal immigration law.

3. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is an INA sec. 287(g) law enforcement agency empowered to enforce federal immigration law. Will the Highway Patrol be utilized in the future in further mass immigration enforcement operations? So far, we’ve not seen mass operations in Oklahoma cities or towns with known undocumented populations. A mass operation was planned for a certain Oklahoma town in the late 2000s but dropped after the economic devastation to that town and its animal agriculture related business was taken into consideration. Will any such plans be put back on the table by the Highway Patrol or federal officials?