Wednesday Morning Rant

I am fairly inured to the theater of the absurd that is most levels of American government. I rarely see anything that makes me stop and think, "now that is almost unbelievably absurd." This rare event occurred this week, courtesy of Oklahoma. Oklahoma "welcomed visitors from ICE" this week to do targeted enforcement at a commercial truck port of entry in that state to sweep for illegals. As California is the largest sanctuary state near Oklahoma (Colorado is closer, but nowhere near as large or important), Oklahoma's "Operation Guardian" specifically targeted trucks from California.

Per Oklahoma's press release about the operation, it resulted in the arrest of at least 130 drivers for "various violations" during the three-day operation. As the press release was published, Oklahoma governor Stitt made an X post with this gem:

If New York wants to hand out CDLs to illegal immigrants with “No Name Given,” that’s on them. The moment they cross into Oklahoma, they answer to our laws.

OHP performed an enforcement action along I-40 and apprehended 125 illegal immigrants.

This is keeping Oklahomans safe. pic.twitter.com/kNspThTk4E

— Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) September 29, 2025

He should have used the proper "illegal alien," but otherwise, top marks. For those who can't see it, the blurb contains a picture of a redacted New York State CDL where the given name is "No Name Given." Presumably there is a surname on the license (it's redacted). But if you look closely, you will also see the white star in a black circle on the license. This indicates that the license is REALID compliant. An (allegedly) illegal alien arrested by ICE and OHP was given a REALID by New York Sanctuary State.

Many have pointed out that this could be not as bad as it looks because there are countries like Afghanistan, parts of India, etc., where mononyms are common. When that happens, aliens - legal or otherwise - may have no first name to give. But it should be exceedingly rare and the odds of a random trucker in a sample size of 130 illegal aliens found in an arbitrary three-day period at one port of entry in one state being someone who is from one of those countries and and has a mononym seem fairly low. The odds are much better that the sanctuary states just don't care and hand them out like pennycandy. The two, of course, can be simultaneously true.

The press, of course, continues to show the country why they deserve no respect or trust. Oklahoma City's NBC affiliate KFOR-TV ran this gem when covering "Operation Guardian":

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) -- On Monday, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt announced authorities apprehended 130 alleged "illegal" immigrants from multiple countries under "Operation Guardian" sweep along Interstate 40.

According to the Governor Stitt's announcement, the operation handled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) targeted enforcement along I-40 in western Oklahoma with numerous commercial truck drivers utilizing licensures issued by sanctuary states from multiple countries, including India, Uzbekistan, China, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Mauritania.

The outlandish absurdity of "No Name Given" and the hilarious treatment of it by Oklahoma's local press makes for ideal meme material but I think the overall operation is a better indicator of the dangerous absurdity that has come to define American government. Oklahoma LE and ICE decided to have a group of officers spend a few days hanging out a port of entry on the interstate and actually take a look at trucks coming from the 800 pound gorilla of a sanctuary state that is California. The outcome of that effort was collaring more than 40 illegal alien truckers per day. This was obviously low-hanging fruit, and a shining example of just how deep the rot goes. CDLs are supposed to have some requirements - requirements like being able to speak, read and write in English, for example - but the sanctuary jurisdictions don't care.

Not unless you're an American, anyway. If you're a citizen, you'd better be damn sure to dot every 'i' and cross every 't' and satisfy every requirement. If you're an invader, however, sanctuary states like New York and California are so indifferent that they'll just hand you a CDL without so much as your real name on it. Trucking outfits that follow the rules and hire legal drivers get run down by fly-by-night outfits operating out of a rented room somewhere and staffing up with illegals.

Collaring the drivers is a good thing, but going after the shady operators who run the trucking companies that employ them needs to happen - along with punishing the sanctuary jurisdictions that make it all possible.

posted by Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM

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