ICE Arrests Russian National in 2024 Fatal Crash Case, Releases New Data on Criminal Arrests Amid Commercial Trucking Crackdown

Since ICE's June 9 arrest of Georgii Gabiev in Brooklyn, additional details have emerged about both his case and a broader pattern of immigration enforcement targeting criminal offenders and commercial vehicle operators.

The Gabiev Case

Gabiev, a Russian national who entered the United States illegally in 2022, was arrested by ICE on June 9, according to a Department of Homeland Security press release. He had already pleaded guilty in Minnesota to criminal vehicular homicide and served 120 days in jail after his pickup truck struck and killed semi-truck driver Tim Tarnowski on March 5, 2024. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported at the time that a state trooper arriving at the scene found Tarnowski's semi on its side, engulfed in flames, and spotted an iPad near Gabiev's center console still playing a YouTube language-learning video.

Gabiev is now in ICE custody pending removal proceedings, DHS confirmed. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem attributed the death directly to Biden-era border policy in a statement on the arrest.

The strongest counterargument on that framing: immigration policy critics of the current enforcement approach point out that millions of people entered or overstayed during the Biden years, the vast majority without incident, and that attributing a single individual's criminal act to a presidential administration involves a causal leap that the facts don't fully support. Gabiev's crime was distracted driving resulting in homicide, a type of offense committed by U.S. citizens daily. His immigration status is a separate legal violation.

His prior deportation proceedings, if any, and how he remained in the country for two years after illegal entry are questions the DHS press release does not address.

Homan's Numbers on Criminal Arrests

Border Czar Tom Homan told Newsmax on Monday that the share of ICE apprehensions involving people with criminal convictions or pending charges has shifted. "It was about 70%," Homan said on Carl Higbie Frontline. "Right now, I think we're about 64%. But you know what? That's a good number."

Homan defined "criminal" as someone with a criminal conviction or pending charges, adding, "We found them in the jail cell, locked in a jail cell, which means they're probably not a choir boy."

He acknowledged that roughly 40% of current arrests are non-criminal: "I think it's better than 40% criminal and 60% non-criminal. But everybody's on the table."

ICE's own spokesperson is confirming that four in ten people currently being detained do not have criminal records or pending charges. Civil liberties organizations have raised this concern for months, arguing that the shift toward broader enforcement sweeps raises due process questions for people with no criminal history, long U.S. residency, and U.S. citizen family members.

Commercial Trucking Enforcement

Separately, Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents conducted a five-day targeted operation in mid-May, according to a social media post from sector officials cited by Breitbart News. Agents arrested 52 people at immigration stops on major Arizona highways, 36 of whom were found operating commercial vehicles under licenses issued by states with sanctuary policies. The nationalities listed included El Salvador, India, Mexico, Turkey, and Russia.

Agents also arrested Magandeep Singh, an Indian national, during a traffic stop in the Blythe area. Singh had an active international alert for homicide, Yuma Sector officials stated. He was transferred to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, which is coordinating with international law enforcement for a potential transfer.

A U.S. Department of Transportation spokesperson told Breitbart that many of the commercial drivers were working under expired work authorizations issued during the Biden administration: "These are no longer valid."

Note: The AP News source included in this story's source set returned a page-unavailable result and provided no reportable content on this topic. All factual claims here draw from DHS press releases as reported by Breitbart and direct Homan quotes from Newsmax. No independent outlet has published separate confirmation of the individual case details.

What's Not Yet Established

DHS has also published a list of ICE arrests over the weekend involving individuals convicted of child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, domestic violence, and related offenses across multiple states, according to a DHS statement attributed to spokesperson Lauren Bis. The list includes names and conviction jurisdictions for roughly 15 individuals from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Bhutan, and other countries.

These are prior convictions in U.S. state and federal courts, not allegations. The people named were convicted by juries or pleaded guilty before U.S. judges. Their immigration status is the subject of current removal proceedings.

The unresolved policy question Homan himself opened: if 40% of ICE arrests now involve people without criminal convictions or pending charges, what legal standard and prioritization criteria govern those arrests, and is that standard being applied uniformly? ICE has not published a public written policy defining the current non-criminal arrest criteria.