Federal agencies arrest 95 illegal immigrant truck drivers in Arizona CDL sweep

WASHINGTON - Federal agencies arrested 95 illegal immigrant truck drivers in Arizona earlier this month in a sweep aimed at commercial traffic near the southern border, Customs and Border Protection said in figures first reported by Fox News.

All 95 held state-issued commercial driver's licenses, CBP said. Seventy-six of the licenses came from California and six from New York, according to the report. Officials tied the operation to broader efforts against human and drug smuggling routes that rely on big-rig cover.

The arrests fit a year-long Trump administration campaign led by the Department of Transportation and Homeland Security to pull unqualified and illegally credentialed commercial drivers off US highways. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has revoked tens of thousands of improperly issued CDLs, removed thousands of suspect training providers from the federal registry, and placed more than 26,000 operators out of service for failing English proficiency standards.

Duffy has argued that drivers who cannot read road signs or talk with troopers create avoidable crash risk. The department has also fought state lawsuits that seek to limit federal access to licensing data used in those checks.

Commercial trucks move most of the country's freight. When licensing shortcuts put illegal or untrained drivers in those seats, the cost shows up in fatal crash reports and insurance rates. Seniors who drive interstates, or whose families work in trucking, have been among the loudest voices after high-profile wrecks involving non-domiciled CDLs.

Federal officials presented the Arizona numbers as one month's enforcement sample, not a claim that the problem is solved. More joint DOT and DHS operations are expected on major freight corridors.