Just three of the 46 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses issued to illegal aliens. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Secretary Kristi Noem announced that a joint 287(g) operation between ICE and the Indiana State Police resulted in the arrest of 223 illegal aliens along Indiana highways near the Illinois border, including 146 truck drivers. The operation, conducted in Northwest Indiana as part of Chicago-based Operation Midway Blitz, targeted individuals involved in offenses including DUI, drug trafficking, burglary, assault, child abuse, domestic battery, prostitution, and fraud. More than 40 of those arrested had been issued commercial driver’s licenses, primarily from Illinois, California, and New York.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also conducted roadside enforcement actions in multiple states, including New York, detaining drivers holding valid commercial licenses issued by other states. Federal and state officials said these operations were intended to address public safety risks associated with illegal aliens operating commercial vehicles and cited recent fatal crashes as justification for coordinated enforcement, particularly in and around sanctuary jurisdictions.
The enforcement actions followed federal audits that identified widespread CDL fraud and improper issuance practices across multiple states. Federal officials estimate that as many as 130,000 undocumented truck drivers may be operating in the United States, with tens of thousands believed to have obtained licenses through illegitimate means.
The Trump administration has threatened to withhold highway funding from states that fail to comply with federal audits and revoke licenses issued under questionable circumstances. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that New York could lose up to $73 million in federal highway funding if the state fails to address audit findings within 30 days. Similar funding threats have been directed at California at $160 million, Texas at $182 million, and Minnesota at $30 million.
New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles rejected the allegations, stating that it complies with federal requirements and verifies lawful status using federally issued documents. State officials characterized the funding threat as a political action that does not improve road safety.
California has filed a lawsuit against the federal government seeking the return of tens of millions of dollars in withheld transportation funding, arguing that the funding cuts are arbitrary and unlawful. The state has begun revoking 17,000 improperly issued licenses in response to federal pressure.
Federal audits found that 53 percent of sampled non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses in New York were issued illegally and that 25 percent of 145 non-domiciled licenses reviewed in California since June 2025 were improperly issued. Additional audits identified improper issuance practices in Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington.
The issue is longstanding. Between 2000 and 2021, the number of foreign-born truck drivers more than doubled, rising from 316,000 to more than 720,000. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that immigrants made up approximately 18 to 20 percent of truck drivers in 2024, compared to 18.6 percent of the overall U.S. labor force. Industry sources, including FreightWaves, estimate the actual share may exceed 20 percent due to underreporting by small fleets. Immigrant truck drivers primarily come from Central America and the Caribbean, accounting for about 59.8 percent, followed by South America at 6.5 percent, with additional drivers from India, China, Poland, Ukraine, and other regions.
Certain states have especially high proportions of immigrant truck drivers, including California at 46.7 percent, New Jersey at 40.4 percent, Florida at 32.2 percent, and New York at 25.7 percent. In Houston, nearly 40 percent of local truck drivers are immigrants, while in the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim metropolitan area, 52 percent of truck drivers are foreign-born.
In addition to immigrant drivers, illegal alien drivers are also present, and among both legal and illegal immigrants there has been widespread fraud related to commercial driver’s licenses, including identity theft, bribery schemes, fraudulent Mexican licenses, and test-taking fraud.
In August 2025, federal authorities charged Flor Consuelo Del Carmen Caballero Bernabe, a 55-year-old Peruvian citizen, with using a stolen identity to obtain and maintain a Connecticut commercial driver’s license for nearly 25 years. Caballero Bernabe entered the United States in 2000 on a non-immigrant visa and used the identity and Social Security number of a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico to reside, work, and obtain a CDL. The fraud was uncovered in 2022 after the rightful identity holder applied for Social Security Disability benefits and learned that someone in Connecticut had been earning income under the same number.
Investigators found that Caballero Bernabe used the fraudulent identity to obtain a U.S. passport in 2005, renew it in 2015, and again in 2021 after a legal name and gender change, traveling internationally multiple times. Federal authorities also determined that Caballero Bernabe made false statements on FMCSA medical examination forms to retain the CDL and operated commercial motor vehicles for federally regulated carriers.
Washington State regulators uncovered a bribery scheme involving Skyline CDL School, which operated locations in Auburn and Vancouver, and an independent third-party examiner. Investigators found that gold envelopes containing $520 to $530 in cash were mailed via UPS from individuals linked to Skyline, each bundle paper-clipped to a note listing the birthdate of a student seeking a commercial driver’s license. Some drivers never took the test, while others failed to appear on scheduled test days but still received passing scores. When authorities retested 74 drivers certified by the examiner, 80 percent failed.
The investigation also found that Skyline used unqualified instructors, falsified records, bypassed English-language requirements, and failed to document training hours. Washington suspended Skyline’s license in December 2024, terminated it in March 2025, and revoked the credentials of 110 drivers, including 102 associated with Skyline.
Texas Highway Patrol uncovered large-scale fraud involving counterfeit Mexican Licencias Federales de Conductor, the Mexican equivalent of a CDL, following an increase in commercial vehicles near construction zones after the COVID-19 pandemic. Officers found encampments of 80 to 100 commercial trucks around major Texas cities operated by drivers using digital Mexican licenses, many of whom were from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and other Central American countries rather than Mexico.
Major Omar Villarreal said roadside questioning quickly exposed the fraud when drivers claiming to be from Guadalajara described beaches, despite the city being landlocked. Drivers admitted purchasing the fake licenses for about $2,500 by submitting selfies and wiring payments to third-party vendors. The scheme expanded after Mexico digitized its LFC system in 2021, and Texas authorities linked the fraudulent licenses to rising crash rates among LFC holders statewide.
Multiple bribery and test-taking fraud schemes have also been prosecuted nationwide, involving DMV employees, trucking school owners, and professional test-takers. In California, a scheme involving multiple trucking schools and DMV employees led to 20 convictions after hundreds of commercial driver’s licenses were issued to applicants who had not taken or passed required tests. School owners acted as brokers, collecting payments and bribing DMV employees to enter false passing results into state databases.
In Massachusetts, former State Police Sergeant Gary Cederquist was convicted on 48 counts for providing false passing scores to 40 CDL applicants in exchange for bribes, including cases of Fiji Water, Arizona Iced Tea, and Swedish Fish. Prosecutors said Cederquist and his co-conspirators used the term “golden handshake” to mark applicants who would automatically pass, even if they failed or skipped the skills test.
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