Florida congressman targets sanctuary states over illegal CDL issue

Florida Congressman Byron Donalds is calling for a federal crackdown on sanctuary state policies that allow illegal immigrants to obtain commercial driver’s licenses after 70 illegal immigrants were arrested in a joint operation by ICE and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol; Among them, 34 are accused of illegally driving large trucks in the United States.

“There are blue states that don’t care about the laws of the nation. They want to be sanctuaries, they want to shelter fugitives, and the people paying the price are the citizens in the red states who don’t actually want these sanctuary policies,” Donalds, a Republican, told Fox News Digital.

Donalds said the incident in Oklahoma highlights a growing national security risk: foreign nationals who “can’t read our road signs” but are “gaming the system” to obtain business licenses in states such as California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey.

“There are American people, they’re doing the right thing, and now they’re in danger of losing their lives or getting into a car accident with a CDL driver who can’t read our signs, doesn’t know our laws,” he said. “These commercial driver’s license operators [are] 80,000 pounds of driving gear. This is crazy.”

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Donalds said his WEIGH Act would give the federal government new tools to stop states from issuing CDLs to illegal immigrants and punish those who do so.

“That’s one of the reasons I sponsored the WEIGH Act here in D.C.,” he explained. “In effect, this would not only give the Department of Transportation the ability to hold other states accountable for allowing the issuance of these CDL licenses, but it would also give the Treasury Department the authority to withhold federal funds in the process.”

“If you really penalize these states for allowing this behavior, then they are going to have to go back and fix this situation,” Donalds said. “That’s how you save the lives of the American people.”

The bill would also allow the Department of Transportation to conduct immigration and English proficiency checks at weigh stations across the country.

“If there is a fault in one of these two, they detain that driver,” he said. “That gives them the authority to withhold federal transportation dollars from those states … and those are two mechanisms that we believe will stop a lot of these conservation policies in California, New York and other blue states in America.”

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Bodycam still shows Harjinder Singh holding paperwork as a New Mexico State Police officer issued him a speeding ticket during a July 3 traffic stop. He is accused of causing a crash that killed three people in Florida in August. (New Mexico State Police body camera)

Donald’s comments come after ICE and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol announced “Operation Protector,” a two-day enforcement sweep in late October that resulted in the arrests of 70 people, including 34 people who were illegally driving commercial trucks in the United States.

ICE said 26 of those drivers had CDLs issued in sanctuary states, while the other eight had no commercial licenses at all. The operation was conducted under Oklahoma’s 287(g) partnership with ICE to address public safety concerns related to unlicensed and unauthorized drivers.

Marcos Charles, ICE’s deputy administrator for Enforcement and Removal Operations, said many of those detained “were operating 80,000-pound tractor trailers and in some cases could not read basic English,” calling it a “serious highway safety risk.”

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ICE said Akhror Bozorov, a criminal illegal alien from Uzbekistan, was issued a CDL from Pennsylvania. (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt praised the effort, saying the state will continue to enforce “common sense standards” requiring legal status and English proficiency for commercial drivers.

The danger extends far beyond a single state, Donalds said.

“It’s like someone who can’t see is driving an 80,000-pound truck. It’s very dangerous,” he said. “The problem in Florida was that there was a section of the turnpike where you weren’t allowed to turn back, and the guy turned around. So what happened? Three people had been killed on Florida highways. It’s so serious… this behavior needs to stop.”

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“If these states don’t do the right thing, then it will be the federal government’s responsibility to do it,” Donalds said.

Donalds also took his message to Democratic governors in sanctuary states.

“Stop living with this worldview that radical left immigration policy is the right thing to do on behalf of the American people. It simply isn’t. It makes our country less safe,” he continued. “This is not partisanship, it shouldn’t be partisanship. It’s not ideological, it shouldn’t be ideological. This is about public safety.”

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“Every governor has a responsibility to do the right thing to keep our roads safe,” he added.

Supporting Donalds’ warning, National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art Del Cueto told Fox News Digital that this situation should never have happened.

“It’s surprising that we’re even looking at this,” Del Cueto said. “They’re illegal; not only are they not supposed to have a CDL, they’re not supposed to have a driver’s license. They’re not here legally.”

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ICE said it plans to expand similar enforcement operations in other states as part of its ongoing focus on highway safety and coordination with state partners.

A previous operation in September arrested 120 people, including 91 commercial drivers with criminal histories ranging from drunk driving to money laundering and human trafficking. The goal is to ensure that “illegal aliens who engage in criminal activity or operate vehicles without proper permits” are removed from U.S. highways, officials said.

Stepheny Price covers crimes including missing persons, murders and immigration crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.