A three-day operation conducted by the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office called “Truck Around and Find Out,” reported a shocking total of 82 commercial trucks stopped, leading to the arrest of 32 illegal immigrants and 51 tickets written, according to information shared by Sheriff Brian Kozak. The sheriff also revealed that this marks the second commercial truck safety operation on Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 85.
Both of those roads are big trucking routes that run throughout the country. The first operation, which took place in November, was called “Operation Safe Haul.” Kozak stated that the reason for conducting targeted traffic operations at the Wyoming county’s borders with Colorado is to assist deputies with identifying commercial truckers who aren’t abiding by the rules.
“Our traffic unit, which I have three full-time deputies assigned to traffic enforcement, they are looking for these violations every day,” the sheriff went on to tell Cowboy State Daily concerning the operations. “And they seem to be bringing in either unlicensed or undocumented truck drivers every other day. So, it’s a continuing thing for us.”
According to the report, Kozak also stated that the operation, which was three days in length, was a joint effort that saw deputies working alongside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). However, he noted that the operation was not an official ICE-led operation. “They brought in extra officers from Colorado to assist for these three days,” Kozak stated.
“We actually had, most of the time, an ICE officer actually in a deputy’s vehicle with them. That way they can immediately check the immigration status through their computer system,” he added. ICE agents were there because the efforts of county law enforcement have revealed that there’s some overlap with their mission to enforce the law.
Since the operation was three days long, lasting from Monday to Wednesday, it was more efficient for the county to have ICE on the scene instead of having to call them 32 separate times, once for each incident. “This is completely about safety,” the sheriff continued. He assured folks this had nothing to do with doing ICE’s job. “We’re seeing in Wyoming and throughout the country, these big trucks are causing crashes and people are dying.”
As you might expect, some were skeptical about the operations being focused on safety, theorizing that was just a cover for ICE to round up illegal aliens. The ACLU of Wyoming issued a response to the operation through Cowboy State Daily that claimed Kozak has a history of sending immigration-related messages. “We have repeatedly heard Sheriff Kozak say that the reason the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office is engaging in immigration enforcement is to focus on people who are a danger to the community,” Libby Skarin, the organization’s executive director, said in the statement.
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“Once again, his words aren’t aligning with what’s really happening,” she continued. Skarin then said by handing over 32 truck drivers who were in the country illegally to ICE, the sheriff’s office was acting as an arm of the immigration enforcement agency. “Using Laramie County officers to carry out ‘show-me-your-papers’ immigration enforcement erodes constitutional protections, undermines public safety and diverts limited local resources away from core law enforcement responsibilities,” Skarin added.
Highlighting one of the major safety risks posed by illegal aliens with truck drivers’ licenses, Kozak said that many of them do not speak English and don’t understand how to read road signs, which leads to accidents. “A lot of the blow-overs on our interstates are because the drivers can’t read the signs, the regulatory signs that say, ‘Hey, you know, if your truck does not meet a certain weight, you can’t proceed,’” Kozak explained.
“A lot of those blow-overs are from drivers who don’t understand English,” he continued. “So yeah, it’s a big safety risk.” During the “Truck Around and Find Out” operation, a total of 177 traffic stops were made by law enforcement officials. Kozak made it clear that the vast majority of truck drivers on the road are “doing it right.”