By LESLIE BONILLA MUÑIZ
This story was originally published in the Indiana Capital Chronical
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Thursday that a road-focused immigration sweep with Indiana State Police has resulted in the arrests of 223 people alleged to be living in northwest Indiana without legal permission.
“Operation Midway Blitz” was launched in September and dedicated to an Illinois woman killed in a vehicle crash with a Guatemalan man in January.
“If you are here, driving on our streets illegally, and our highways, you are endangering our citizens, and your days are numbered,” Noem declared at a news conference in Gary, Indiana.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and Hoosier Public Safety Secretary Anthony Scott were also present.
Noem said 223 immigrants were arrested “and taken off our roads” through a 287(g) agreement with Indiana State Police. The deal was inked over the summer.
Of those, 146 were drivers: 46 semi-truck drivers and another 82 who drove box trucks, buses and other vehicles, she said. More than 40 held commercial driver’s licenses from over a dozen states, according to Noem and a news release.
She pointed to large pictures of non-citizens convicted of various crimes, noting that collaborations with state and local law enforcement agencies have yielded more than 3,000 arrests since the “Midway Blitz” began.
Noem said that number includes “rapists, murderers and gang members.”
“We don’t want any of these individuals … in our communities, and we especially don’t want them behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler when they can’t speak our language, they don’t understand our laws, they can’t follow our roadway signs, and they can’t interact with law enforcement or our citizens,” she continued.
Braun thanked the Trump administration for “looking to Indiana,” saying illegal driving impacts the interstate highway-heavy Hoosier State more than others.
Indiana State Police plan to expand their cooperation with ICE, according to Braun, by assigning more troopers to commercial vehicle enforcement across the state.
Scott, who is also the state police commissioner, emphasized the work is “not new,” adding that it’s “what we do every day.”
About 1.5 million commercial vehicles are weighed or inspected annually in Indiana, per Scott.
“For the Indiana State Police, this is not about immigration status alone,” he said. “It’s about public safety. An 80,000-pound truck in untrained hands is a dangerous thing.”
Indiana will be reimbursed for its work, according to ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan, who cited provisions in the recently approved One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“I’d like to thank you for defending the homeland, for choosing put the American people first, and the state of Indiana first,” Sheahan told Braun and Scott.
In an op-ed last week for the Chicago Tribune, Denise Lorence — the mother of the slain Illinois woman — wrote that her daughter “would not want to be associated with this” operation.
Katie Abraham “cannot advocate for herself and stand up to say ‘I am not a political pawn.’ So I am here for her,” Lorence added. She noted it was Abraham’s father and his wife that agreed to use her name in support of “Operation Midway Blitz.”
