Law enforcement agencies in Texas, Arizona and California have ramped up joint operations targeting commercial drivers over the past several months, uncovering licensing violations, equipment defects and, in a number of cases, arrests tied to immigration status — part of a broader nationwide enforcement push that has intensified since a string of fatal truck crashes last year.
The enforcement wave traces back to a series of 2025 wrecks that officials blamed on unqualified or improperly licensed drivers, most notably the August crash on Florida’s Turnpike that killed three people after a driver made an illegal U-turn. That crash, along with a fatal pileup on I-35 north of Austin and another crash in Alabama, prompted U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to direct states to tighten oversight of commercial driver’s licenses issued to noncitizens.
The numbers from recent operations have been substantial. In one joint operation, Indiana State Police and federal agents arrested 223 people near the Illinois state line. In Oklahoma, more than 120 drivers were arrested in a single operation along I-40, with charges ranging from DUI to human smuggling and drug distribution. In the Texas panhandle, more than 30 people were arrested by state troopers and federal agents in a single day along the same corridor. Industry trackers estimate that more than 9,500 commercial truckers have been pulled off U.S. roads nationwide as these sweeps have expanded.
The regulatory backdrop shifted substantially this spring. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s final rule, which took effect March 16, now limits eligibility for non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses to holders of H-2A, H-2B and E-2 visas — cutting out most other lawfully present noncitizens, including DACA recipients, asylum seekers and Temporary Protected Status holders who previously qualified.
States have responded unevenly. California is caught in an ongoing legal back-and-forth: a state court ordered the California DMV to let roughly 20,000 drivers whose non-domiciled CDLs were canceled reapply, but the DMV says it still isn’t issuing new non-domiciled licenses because federal regulators have directed it not to. New York faced a more direct financial consequence, losing more than $73 million in federal highway funding after an FMCSA audit found more than half of a sample of the state’s non-domiciled CDL records had been issued in violation of federal law.
Texas and Arizona have gone further at the state level, with lawmakers in both states introducing bills that would create new state criminal penalties — including felony charges and vehicle seizure — for unauthorized immigrants caught driving commercial trucks. Trucking industry groups in both states have pushed back, warning the measures risk running afoul of federal preemption law and could jeopardize federal funding that supports commercial vehicle enforcement training.
