Federal immigration authorities and Indiana State Police hauled in more than 200 illegal aliens on the state’s highway as part of Operation Midway Blitz out of Chicago.
The catch included 146 illegal-alien truck drivers in a variety of trucks. Worse still, the illegals have been arrested before, for such crimes as prostitution, child abuse, and drug trafficking.
A number of the illegals held commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), most from far-left sanctuary states such as California.
The arrests are part of nationwide crackdown on illegal-alien truck drivers. In September, Oklahoma authorities and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) nailed 91 illegals behind the wheels of commercial vehicles.
Semis, Box Trucks, and Moving Vans
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief Kristi Noem laid out the numbers from the operation in Indiana.
“223 illegal aliens have been arrested and taken off of our roads,” she said at a news conference today:
Of those, 146 of them were drivers. That includes 46 semi-truck drivers, and another 82 of them that were either box trucks, buses, moving vans, vehicles such as that. The CDLs that were issued to those individuals were issued from over a dozen different states. Many of those individuals could have been licensed in a state somewhere and received their CDL in another state, but overwhelmingly these individuals have come from sanctuary states such as California and Illinois and New York.
More than 40 drivers had CDLs during the “287(g)” operation, DHS reported. Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act permits ICE to deputize local authorities to assist with immigration enforcement.
DHS also detailed the crimes for which the illegals have been arrested:
• Driving Under the Influence
• Drug Trafficking
• Theft
• Burglary
• Assault
• Child Abuse
• Domestic Battery
• Prostitution
• Fraud
“Too many families across this country have felt pain, and been victimized, and lost loved ones because of these drivers,” Noem said at the presser.
She cited the recent case of Montenegrin criminal illegal alien Borko Stankovic, arrested earlier this month in connection with the vehicular homicide of an American.
“Stankovic was operating a semi-truck without a valid commercial license, when he swerved into oncoming traffic and hit a Subaru Crosstrek,” DHS reported. “The driver of the Subaru, Jeffrey Eberly, tragically died at the scene.”
But an illegal’s having a CDL is no guarantee he is a safe driver, as two more cases that Noem mentioned also show.
Two Singhs
On October 21, police allege, Indian illegal Jashanpreet Singh — whom the Biden administration caught entering the country illegally and released at the border in March 2022 — killed three people.
Dashcam video of the crash on the 10 Freeway in Ontario, California, shows the beturbaned Third World “migrant’s” 18-wheeler plow into a white SUV, then into a white work pickup, then into another 18-wheeler, then, in flames, careen to the right and smash into yet another semi on the side of the highway.
Cops allege that Singh, 21, was driving under the influence of drugs. He pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and DUI.
But Singh had more than a CDL. The license was also a REAL ID. California’s claims to the contrary, Singh should not have had a REAL ID. The Transportation Security Administration’s website says:
Noncitizens lawfully admitted for permanent or temporary residence, noncitizens with conditional permanent resident status, noncitizens with an approved application for asylum, and noncitizens who have entered the United States as refugees are eligible for a full-term REAL ID license or identification card.
That Singh is only one Indian by that Punjabi Sikh name to whom California gave a CDL.
Another is Harjinder Singh, 28. He failed an English test after he killed three people in Florida, cops allege, during an illegal left-hand U-turn at a spot marked “official use only.” The victims crashed into this trailer. He also had a CDL from Washington state. He too pleaded not guilty.
“Far too many innocent Americans have been killed by illegal aliens driving semi-trucks and big rigs,” Noem wrote on X over video of her announcement.
Oklahoma Operation
The operation in Indiana is the second major effort to pull illegals — most importantly, illegal-alien truck drivers — off the nation’s highways. In Oklahoma, state and federal authorities, also operating under the 287(g) program, arrested 120 illegals, 91 of whom were driving a “commercial motor vehicle.” Another 27 were apprehended in cars or other passenger vehicles.
One of the illegals carried a CDL from New York with the name “No Name Given.”
Those illegals also committed dozens of crimes.
ICE detailed the multiple nations from which 91 illegals hailed. No. 1, not surprisingly, was India, with 39.
Indeed, Indians are quite eager to become truck drivers. After the wreck in which Harjinder Singh left three people dead, an internet sleuth found out that Indian illegals have the perfect place to get CDL training: the Punjab Truck Driving School. After “graduating” from that estimable academy, an Indian illegal can join the North American Punjabi Trucking Association. It is “the proud representative of the Punjabi trucking industry,” it brags on its website.
Jashanpreet Singh lived in Yuba City, California, a target of Punjabi immigrants for decades and known as a “mini Punjab” in the United States.
Harjinder Singh lives in Stockton, California, home of the Punjabi Devils motorcycle gang.
