We’ve all seen the reports—and they’re not reassuring. Commercial driver’s licenses have been handed out to people who never should have qualified: individuals who can’t read or speak English, people in the country illegally, and others who pose a clear safety risk behind the wheel of massive commercial vehicles.
Now the crackdown is finally happening. A recent operation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California removed more than 100 illegal drivers from the highways. That’s 100 potential disasters avoided—and a reminder of just how reckless ‘sanctuary’ Democrats have been in putting all of us in danger:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 100 illegal alien truck drivers on California highways in Operation Highway Sentinel, launched after a string of deadly crashes linked to commercial driving licenses (CDLs) issued under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s policies.
Federal authorities said the sweep was launched after multiple fatal crashes across several states involving illegal alien truck drivers licensed in California, underscoring growing concerns that the state’s commercial licensing policies are putting motorists nationwide at risk.
Those arrested included illegal aliens from India, Mexico, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Russia, Georgia, Venezuela, El Salvador and Honduras.
That last sentence is cause for optimism: If authorities know who these drivers are and where they came from, removing them from the country ought to be straightforward. This situation has gone on far too long.
Most of these individuals should not be in the United States in the first place—let alone operating 35,000-pound commercial vehicles capable of barreling down public highways at highway speeds. This isn’t an abstract policy debate. We’ve already seen tragic, preventable consequences from lax enforcement, and pretending otherwise only guarantees more of the same.
Also, ICE representatives aren’t shy about pointing out the obvious in this California operation:
“Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary state policies are costing American lives,” ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said. “His government knowingly issued thousands of CDLs to illegal aliens who had no business driving at all, let alone behind the wheel of a massive semi-truck. These drivers get their licenses, leave California, then terrorize roads all over the country.”
“ICE is stepping in where his state failed,” Sheahan added. “Just like our operations in Oklahoma and Indiana, we are taking these dangerous illegal alien truckers off the roads and making California streets safe again.”
I’ll take issue with one word used by Deputy Director Sheahan in the statement that “ICE is stepping in where his (Gavin Newsom’s) state failed.” Failed suggests California tried to handle this responsibly and simply came up short. That’s not what happened.
Under Newsom, this wasn’t failure—it was deliberate malfeasance. It was political correctness run amok. Under his regime and that of the Democrat supermajorities in the state legislature, California officials knowingly lowered standards and looked the other way, prioritizing ideology over basic competence and public safety.
This was a conscious decision to disregard the standards that commercial driver’s license holders are supposed to meet. Worse, it showed a stunning indifference to the safety, lives, and property of the people of California and the rest of the country. That’s why Immigration and Customs Enforcement had to step in—not because the state couldn’t do its job, but because it chose not to.
These people never should have been behind the wheel of a big rig. They never should have been driving at all. And they never should have been in the country in the first place. California didn’t merely fall short of some regulatory benchmark—the Newsom administration made a deliberate choice to abandon it.
That distinction matters. This wasn’t incompetence; it was intent. Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies knowingly sacrificed public safety on the altar of ideology, and the consequences were entirely predictable.
And keep this in mind: it’s all but certain that Newsom will seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. This episode belongs on a very long list of reasons why anyone even slightly to the right of Bernie Sanders needs to show up—whether in the midterms or in the next presidential election.
