DHS Says Operation Guardian Arrested 230+ Illegal Immigrants in 15 States, 40+ Holding Commercial Driver's Licenses

The Department of Homeland Security says a three-day, 15-state sweep of the trucking industry ended with more than 230 arrests of people in the country illegally. More than 40 of them held commercial driver's licenses.

Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced the results Monday, Nov. 2, at a press conference at Melton Truck Lines headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The operation, called Operation Guardian, ran from Oct. 26 to Oct. 28 and was carried out by ICE with state and local partners.

What DHS says happened

"In just three days, we arrested more than 230 illegal aliens, including over 40 illegal aliens with commercial driver's licenses, across 15 states," Mullin said.

The participating states were Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, according to DHS. Daily Wire reporting on the press conference also lists Kansas and Ohio among participants, so the exact roster is not consistent across accounts.

DHS named two incidents from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. On Oct. 26, troopers stopped a vehicle on I-35 after seeing the driver look at his phone. A registration check showed it had been reported stolen in Texas. DHS says the driver, Luis Armando Garlo Rodriguez, a Honduran national, resisted arrest, broke a trooper's arm and ran. He was tracked down and arrested. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations office in Tulsa has filed federal charges for assaulting, resisting and impeding officers. Daily Wire reported a four-hour manhunt and that methamphetamine was found; DHS's announcement did not include those details.

On Oct. 27, troopers stopped a vehicle on I-40 and found all seven occupants were in the country illegally, including an unaccompanied child. Daily Wire reported the group included five adult men under investigation for human trafficking and a 17-year-old girl. Mullin said federal authorities had been looking for her. "Because of this operation, we were able to locate her," he said.

Why 15 states at once

Oklahoma Department of Public Safety Commissioner Tim Tipton said the multistate design was deliberate. After Oklahoma began targeting illegal truckers alongside federal agents, he said, social media posts started telling drivers to "divert" around the state.

"We reached out to 14 other states and asked them if they would be willing to do the same type of enforcement effort that we're gonna do at the same time," Tipton said.

Indiana State Police said their officers worked secondary and bypass routes that drivers use to avoid enforcement on the main interstates.

Tipton said the goal is to keep going "until either trucking companies that are hiring these people, the brokers that are using these trucking companies that are not professional go out of business, and we take every one of these untrained, illegally here people out of driving these trucks."

The licensing argument

Mullin and DHS pointed the finger at state licensing. DHS said "sanctuary states have issued CDLs to tens of thousands of illegal aliens who are unqualified, poorly vetted, do not speak English, and have known criminal histories." Mullin named California and New York specifically.

There is documentary support for scrutiny of state licensing. In August, a Transportation and DHS operation in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio detained 51 people, including 21 drivers holding non-domiciled CDLs from California and New York. A Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration review of Texas, a state that is not among those Mullin criticized, found violations in 60 of 123 sampled license files, or 49%. Those violations mostly involved licenses valid beyond the date of the driver's lawful-presence documents.

That audit sample does not show half of Texas CDL holders lack legal status, and a non-domiciled CDL does not by itself indicate unlawful presence. The audit found weaknesses in how the state verified and documented eligibility.

What DHS has not disclosed

DHS has not released a state-by-state breakdown of the Operation Guardian arrests. It has not said which states issued the 40-plus licenses, how many commercial vehicles were inspected, or how many of the CDL holders were driving trucks when arrested.

It also has not said whether any of the CDL holders were charged with licensing fraud or whether their licenses were obtained fraudulently or were otherwise invalid. Of the more than 230 arrests, the federal charge DHS has identified is the one against Rodriguez.

The nationalities DHS and participating officials listed span Armenia, Brazil, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mongolia, Peru and Ukraine.

Part of a longer campaign

Operation Guardian follows a string of trucking-focused actions. ICE launched Operation Guardrail on Sept. 25, a nationwide effort aimed at commercial vehicles violating U.S. law, and had made 303 arrests under it as of Oct. 29, DHS says. Earlier blitzes took place in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Kentucky and North Dakota. Operation Highway Shield in August also put 766 drivers and vehicles out of service, a separate outcome from immigration arrests or license revocations.

DHS also says ICE made 4,795 CDL-related arrests nationwide between Jan. 20, 2025, and Oct. 28, 2026, including 1,233 involving CDL holders. DHS has not said whether Operation Guardian's arrests are counted in those totals.

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) has outlined the Trucking Safety and Accountability Act of 2026 to address the licensing question in Congress.

The question DHS has not answered is how many of the 40-plus CDL holders held licenses they should never have received, and which states issued them. That breakdown would show whether the fix lies with federal agents on the highway or with the state motor vehicle offices handing out the licenses.