Okla. Highway Patrol's Relationship with ICE

The Oklahoma-DHS connection is currently quite strong with our former Senator Markwayne Mullin leading DHS and former OK State Trooper Lance Schroyer awaiting confirmation to head ICE. So it shouldn't have surprised me that when WaPo went to watch state troopers carrying out the administration's immigration crackdown, they did so in Oklahoma. Apparently, we are "a national leader in terms of per capita immigration arrests."

WaPo notes that "the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has trained all of its troopers to help identify unauthorized immigrants while conducting traffic stops and truck inspections." The reporting isn't entirely clear about whether the training is done by the state agency itself or if that training is the troopers' completion of "an abbreviated 40-hour online ICE training to become certified in immigration enforcement."

During WaPo's time embedded with the OK highway patrol, "Truck drivers were stopped for random safety inspections. Motorists driving sedans and SUVs were pulled over for alleged infractions such as speeding." If, in the course of that routine work, troopers "run across something that may be an immigration violation, then they take action," said a spokesman for the state agency. In total, seven noncitizens were identified and detained on WaPo's watch. By the end of the day, all were loaded onto an ICE van.

"Advocates who work with Latino immigrants" told WaPo that "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." I have heard the same.