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Federal and state law enforcement officers arrested more than 230 people who were in the United States illegally during a 72-hour enforcement operation across 15 states, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday, November 2, 2026. The operation, called Operation Guardian, ran from October 26 to October 28 and was aimed at people in the trucking industry holding unauthorized commercial driver's licenses, as well as other public safety threats on the highways.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced the results at a press conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the headquarters of Melton Truck Lines, alongside Oklahoma Department of Public Safety Commissioner Tim Tipton. "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. Officers inspected 1,005 commercial vehicles during the operation, and the more than 40 commercial driver's license holders taken into custody were removed from the roads.
Operation Guardian was carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state and local partners in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas. It grew out of an Oklahoma program developed after state law enforcement noticed commercial drivers trying to bypass weigh stations. Governor Kevin Stitt directed Commissioner Tipton to design the program in November 2024, and the multi-state version targeted secondary and bypass routes that drivers used to avoid enforcement on major interstate corridors.
Those arrested came from more than 19 countries, including Armenia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Mongolia, Peru and Ukraine. The department highlighted two arrests in Oklahoma. On October 26, a trooper stopped a vehicle on Interstate 35 after seeing the driver looking down at a cell phone; a registration check showed the vehicle had been reported stolen in Texas, and the driver, Luis Armando Garlo Rodriguez, an illegal alien from Honduras, was charged by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations in Tulsa with assaulting, resisting and impeding officers. On October 27, a stop on Interstate 40 found seven occupants who were all in the country illegally, including an unaccompanied child; the driver was identified as Arturo Alvarado-Islas, an illegal alien from Mexico. Officers also reported finding people with outstanding felony warrants and a vehicle carrying six occupants, including a juvenile female, under investigation for suspected human trafficking.
Officials framed the operation as a road-safety measure. Mullin and Tipton pointed to the danger of an 80,000-pound truck driven by someone who has not been properly trained or cannot read and speak English, and said the multi-state sweeps would continue until untrained and unvetted operators are removed from American roadways. Over the past year, Oklahoma authorities alone have removed 710 illegal commercial driver's license holders from state roads.
The operation is part of a broader Trump administration crackdown on illegal aliens holding commercial driver's licenses. ICE launched a separate nationwide effort, Operation Guardrail, on September 25, 2026, which had produced 303 arrests as of October 29. From January 20, 2025, through October 28, 2026, ICE made 4,795 commercial driver's license-related arrests nationwide, including 1,233 involving license holders, according to the department.
Not all of the details have been released. The department did not provide a state-by-state breakdown of the Operation Guardian arrests, did not say which states issued the licenses involved, and did not specify how many of the license holders detained were actively operating trucks when they were apprehended. Critics of broad enforcement sweeps warn they can disrupt industries, separate families and risk unfairly targeting workers, while supporters say removing undocumented drivers from the roads protects public safety and enforces immigration law.