By Constitution Staff

On August 12, Harjinder Singh was operating a tractor trailer when he performed an illegal U-turn on a Florida Turnpike. A minivan crashed into the truck’s trailer. The driver and two passengers in the minivan died. Singh and his passenger were not injured. Singh was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles later reported that Singh had “entered the United States illegally, having crossed the Mexico border in 2018" and “then obtained a Commercial Driver’s License in the state of California.”

On September 29, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced that under Operation Guardian, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP), in partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), conducted a successful three-day enforcement operation along Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma. The operation resulted in the apprehension of more than 125 illegal immigrants from multiple countries, including India, Uzbekistan, China, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Mauritania.

During the operation, the OHP encountered 91 illegal alien commercial truck drivers operating with licenses issued by sanctuary states, including one license listing “No Name Given.” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrested Anmol Anmol, who was issued a commercial driver’s license (CDL) by the state of New York as “No Name Given Anmol.” On September 23, the OHP encountered Anmol at a truck scale on Interstate 40. Record checks conducted by ICE revealed Anmol entered the U.S. illegally from India in 2023 and was released by the Biden administration into the country. Now, under the Trump administration, ICE arrested him and placed him in removal proceedings.

“If New York wants to hand out CDLs to illegal immigrants with `No Name Given,’ that’s on them. The moment they cross into Oklahoma, they answer to our laws,” said Governor Stitt. “I want to thank our troopers and ICE officials for their hard work. This is about keeping Oklahomans safe.”

Thanks to the successful partnership of ICE and OHP, Anmol Anmol is no longer posing a threat to drivers, said U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “New York is not only failing to check if applicants applying to drive 18-wheelers are U.S. citizens but even failing to obtain the full legal names of individuals they are issuing commercial drivers’ licenses to. DHS is working with our state and local partners to get illegal alien truck drivers who often don’t know basic traffic laws off our highways.”

Questions concerning the New York license has drawn criticism from federal officials who say it raises compliance questions under the REAL ID Act of 2005. The license was a Class A CDL, issued in April 2025 and valid until May 2028. It bore a star in the top right corner, indicating the license was REAL ID compliant, but those requirements include that state driver’s licenses and IDs display the full legal name.

Governor Stitt announced Operation Guardian last February. “Former president Biden’s weak border policies allowed our country to become a safe haven for criminal illegal migrants – that ends in Oklahoma with Operation Guardian,” said Governor Stitt. “I’m grateful we have a President in the White House who is taking action where the former refused to. These dangerous illegal aliens should not be walking on our streets, and they soon won’t be. Oklahoma will continue to stand for law & order.”

Operation Guardian expanded agreements with ICE to empower state and local law enforcement to detain and process illegal aliens for removal. It also includes multiple strategies to transfer illegal aliens from state and county custody into federal custody for deportation.

Oklahoma taxpayers were paying approximately $36,000 per day to house 525 illegal aliens in state correctional facilities, majority of whom had committed violent crimes against children, sexual assaults, homicides, or other violent crimes. Of all the illegal aliens held in Oklahoma’s correctional system, 72% were from Mexico, 8% were from Guatemala, 7% were from Honduras, 1% were from Vietnam, and 12% from other foreign nations. In addition to those known criminal illegal aliens, there are likely hundreds more with ICE detainers in county jails serving a sentence or being held in pre-trial detention.

In September, the U.S. Transportation Department tightened commercial driver’s license requirements for noncitizens after five fatal crashes this year that officials say were caused by immigrant truck drivers. The new rules make getting commercial driver’s licenses extremely hard for immigrants because only three specific classes of visa holders will be eligible. States will also have to verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database. These licenses will be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner than that.

A nationwide commercial driver’s license audit began after the crash in Florida. Under the new rules, only 10,000 of the 200,000 noncitizens who have commercial licenses would qualify for them, which would only be available to drivers who have an H-2a, H-2b or E-2 visa. H-2a is for temporary agricultural workers while H-2B is for temporary nonagricultural workers, and E-2 is for people who make substantial investments in a U.S. business. But the rules won’t be enforced retroactively, so those 190,000 drivers will be allowed to keep their commercial licenses at least until they come up for renewal.

Earlier this year, Oklahoma passed Senate Bill 20 by Sen. Kendal Sacchieri (R-Blanchard) and Rep. Jonathan Wilk (R-Goldsby), creating the Oklahoma Secure Roads and Safe Trucking Act of 2025. The measure requires any person holding a non-domiciled commercial driver license or non-domiciled commercial learner’s permit to also possess a valid work visa and provide proof of citizenship to validate his or her identity while operating a motor vehicle. Such a person shall present his or her birth certificate, naturalization certificate, or passport. It also mandates that commercial vehicle operators demonstrate sufficient proficiency in the English language to converse with the public, understand traffic signs, respond to official inquiries, and complete necessary reports.

The bill directly aligns with President Trump’s Executive Order signed earlier this year, which reinforces state authority to enforce immigration and transportation laws as part of a broader crackdown on illegal labor and unvetted foreign workers. It passed the Senate 36-10 and the House 71-13 on May 22. It was approved by the Governor Stitt on May 27, 2025. It was one of the ten bills included on our 2025 Oklahoma Conservative Index rating state legislators published in the summer edition of the Oklahoma Constitution newspaper. You can see how your legislator voted on the bill by clicking the box labeled “How Conservative is your legislator?” at the top of our home page at: www.oklahomaconstitution.com