EUFAULA, Okla. — The Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper leaned into the passenger side door of a black car along Highway 69 as vehicles roared by. He had just checked the driver’s name with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Now the trooper was going to take him into custody.
“Yo soy un designated imigracion official,” said the trooper as he tried to find the right words with his limited Spanish to describe what was about to happen. “You are present in the United States illegally, okay? So I’m going to need you to get out of the car.”
Making immigration arrests wasn’t always part of a state trooper’s responsibilities. But since signing an accord to partner with ICE last year, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has trained all of its troopers to help identify unauthorized immigrants while conducting traffic stops and truck inspections. The Trump administration is relying on state and local officers to carry out the president’s deportation campaign, which has gained momentum in recent months as ICE officers make soaring numbers of arrests.
The Washington Post embedded with Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers over the course of a day while they made traffic stops as part of what the state is calling Operation Guardian. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a former U.S. senator from Oklahoma, says local officers like these are key in increasing arrests. Oklahoma is now a national leader in terms of per capita immigration arrests, and Lance Schroyer, who helped launch the state patrol’s crackdown, has been nominated to lead ICE.
Oklahoma is so rural that many residents must use highways to get to work or run errands. Commercial truck drivers use them to traverse large expanses of land. The highway patrol’s jurisdiction also includes any other public road in the state. During Thursday’s operation, extra troopers were dispatched to work with ICE in the southeastern part of the state.
Truck drivers were stopped for random safety inspections. Motorists driving sedans and SUVs were pulled over for alleged infractions such as speeding. Troopers must identify a traffic violation to pull over a driver. Stopping someone based solely on what they look like is considered racial profiling, which is illegal. Civil rights groups have expressed concern that agencies partnering with ICE are targeting whom to pull over based on their appearance — an accusation the highway patrol rejected.
“Our troopers are out here just doing work,” said Lt. Mark Southall, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. “And in the course of that, if they run across something that may be an immigration violation, then they take action.”
By the end of the day, seven immigrants sat in chairs at the McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office, where a makeshift processing center had been set up in an outdoor carport. At least one had a serious criminal record. Neither ICE nor the highway patrol released any information about the others.
Before heading out, the troopers were given memos briefing them on their routes for the day and providing phone numbers for immigration officers and an interpreter. In Oklahoma, all state troopers have taken an abbreviated 40-hour online ICE training to become certified in immigration enforcement. The highway patrol allowed a reporter to accompany the troopers but would not permit them to be interviewed. The agency also asked that the troopers not be named, citing concerns for their safety if they were identified.
A trooper in a Chevrolet Tahoe police car set off in search of commercial truck drivers. He stopped several seemingly at random to check the condition of their vehicle and their driving record. He said he often begins to suspect someone might be in the country without a legal status if their license states “limited term” or “non-domicile.” Such licenses are given in some states to immigrants who might have a temporary status or employment authorization.
A new Oklahoma law requires drivers of commercial vehicles to be proficient in English. That’s another thing the trooper is now checking.
“What year was your truck manufactured?” he asked one man, who was driving a semi from Round Rock, Texas, to Ohio.
“What year? 2017,” the driver responded.
“Good English?” the trooper asked.
“Oh, you checking? I don’t know,” the man responded with a shy smile.
“Pretty good, pretty good. Well done,” the trooper said.
He went back to his car and printed out a sheet clearing the driver to continue on his way.
A few hours later, a different trooper was scanning Highway 69 for drivers violating traffic laws. He pulled one woman over after spotting her going nearly 10 miles above the speed limit. In another instance, a driver switched lanes without putting on her turn signal. The trooper reviewed both of their records. They had committed traffic infractions, but he didn’t see anything to indicate they were in the country illegally.
That was not the case for a driver stopped in the early evening along the same road. A trooper in a nondescript pickup truck stopped a Volkswagen Passat after he said the man swerved between lanes. When he asked the driver for his license, he handed over a Mexican passport.
The trooper went back to his vehicle to check his record with ICE and discovered the agency had no record of him entering the country.
“Abajo,” the trooper told the driver, using the Spanish word for “down.” The man seemed confused. The trooper tried again.
“Allí. Tú,” he said, pointing in front of the car. The driver understood this time, and walked to the front of his car.
Another trooper handcuffed the driver’s wrists and escorted him to the passenger seat of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol vehicle. The man stared down, his brows furrowed, as the trooper who had stopped him pulled up Google Translate to try to ask him more questions.
“Is everything in the vehicle yours?” the app asked in automated Spanish. “Sí,” the man responded.
The other trooper put on black gloves and began to inspect the man’s car. Inside was a green hand towel. A calculator. Black slides. A turquoise cooler packed with food. In the trunk: work boots, a large tool kit and another cooler with soda and water.
The trooper called for someone to dispatch “the wrecker” — a tow truck — to impound the car.
That evening, the drivers the troopers had arrested sat waiting for ICE to pick them up at the sheriff’s department carport. Some had been there for several hours in the 97-degree heat. Troopers wrapped chains around their torsos and added handcuffs to their ankles. They offered the men water from a large orange cooler and put their belongings in red mesh bags with name tags: cellphones, belts and wallets.
Other troopers occasionally stopped by, chatting and laughing with one another. The immigrants stayed quiet. One man fought back tears.
Little information on the men has been released. Immigration advocates and attorneys in the area said they had not gotten any information about the arrested drivers. The Post asked ICE for the names of those being processed in the carport on Thursday, but the agency would identify only one: Guadalupe Mancera-Cabello. ICE said he had been removed from the country four times before, most recently in 2020, and has a criminal record that includes family violence, assault and burglary. The agency would not say whether those were charges or convictions.
Advocates who work with Latino immigrants say the stops have contributed to a culture of fear — so much so that some are considering giving up any pending asylum claim and self-deporting.
The operation wound to a close nearly eight hours after it started. The troopers waited for their evening briefing. A white van with dark tinted windows arrived. It was ICE.
The officers put the men’s belongings in the front seat. One by one, the immigrants were put in the back.
The post The Post watched state troopers carrying out Trump’s immigration crackdown. Here’s what we saw. appeared first on Washington Post.
