Operation Guardian: 15 States Arrest 40-Plus Foreign Truckers in 72-Hour CDL Dragnet

More than 40 foreign truck drivers were arrested among 230 undocumented immigrants during a 72-hour, 15-state enforcement operation that ran Oct. 26-28 and stretched from the Canadian border to the Gulf Coast. Oklahoma officials are calling Operation Guardian the first large multistate bust of its kind targeting holders of unauthorized commercial driver licenses, and they say the enforcement tempo will not slow down.

Troopers worked alongside federal immigration agents in the coordinated sting, with results announced at Melton Truck Lines in Tulsa by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Oklahoma Public Safety Commissioner Tim Tipton. Both officials framed the operation as a public safety measure while praising trained, professional carriers such as Melton.

For shippers and carriers, the message carries direct commercial weight: Oklahoma intends to keep targeting not only unauthorized drivers but also the trucking companies and brokers that put them behind the wheel.

Why did 15 states act at once?

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has operated under an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than a year, with commercial vehicle immigration enforcement operations launched in September 2025. Troopers concentrated on trucks hauling eastbound freight on Interstate 40 and on Oklahoma's ports of entry.

The multistate dragnet was a direct response to social media. Tipton said state intelligence analysts watched diversion warnings appear almost the moment troopers set up at ports of entry.

"Our goal was to stop diverting," Tipton said. "Our intel analysts would immediately start seeing social media posts and things like that from the East and West Coast telling each other that 'Hey, Oklahoma is back at it again. Divert, go around Oklahoma.'"

By running enforcement simultaneously with Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, authorities closed the workaround of simply routing trucks around a single state.

Russell Hott, ICE assistant director, said the CDL enforcement effort focused on drivers with final orders of removal — people who had completed immigration proceedings but stayed in the country anyway.

"These are individuals who had their day in court, who had due process and the opportunity to present additional evidence," Hott said. "They were ordered removed and refused to go."

What else did the stops uncover?

The arrests extended beyond immigration status. Individuals were picked up on outstanding felony warrants and in cases involving domestic assault, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and suspected human trafficking.

In one case, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras was stopped while allegedly driving a stolen vehicle. Authorities said the suspect assaulted an Oklahoma trooper, leaving him with a dislocated elbow and a broken arm, before fleeing. A four-hour manhunt ended with the suspect found hiding in a tree, allegedly in possession of illegal drugs.

The undocumented drivers came from a wide set of countries, including Armenia, Brazil, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Peru and Ukraine.

Tipton said troopers have uncovered additional alleged criminal conduct during the stops, and he tied the enforcement directly to highway safety rather than immigration policy alone.

"It's just not that they're here illegally, it's just that they're driving a truck, they're untrained and shouldn't even be in the truck, but we find other criminal conduct as well," Tipton said.

What did Indiana's numbers show?

Most participating state police agencies did not publicize their results, but Indiana State Police reported that officers "targeted secondary and bypass routes to eliminate avenues criminals typically use to evade high-level enforcement activities on major interstate corridors."

Indiana's 72-hour tally:

• Just over 500 commercial vehicles inspected
• 85 vehicles ordered out of service
• 51 drivers removed from behind the wheel
• 8 drivers placed out of service for violating English-language proficiency regulations
• 28 arrests on criminal offenses, producing 36 total charges
• Seizures of 124.5 pounds of cannabis, 6.1 grams of methamphetamine and 1.3 grams of fentanyl

What comes next for carriers and brokers?

Tipton was explicit that Oklahoma plans to continue the operations, aimed at both unauthorized drivers and the companies and brokers that hire them. For freight movers routing eastbound loads on I-40 or through the participating states, sustained roadside enforcement — and potential scrutiny of who is actually in the cab — is now part of the operating calculus, with further multistate actions likely as the model proves it can defeat diversion.