In a three-day operation called “Truck Around and Find Out,” the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office reports stopping 82 commercial trucks, arresting 32 illegal immigrants, and writing 51 tickets, Sheriff Brian Kozak said.
It’s the agency’s second commercial truck safety operation on Interstate 25 and U.S. Highway 85, both major trucking routes that run through the county, he said. The first, called “Operation Safe Haul,” was in November.
By doing targeted traffic enforcement at the county’s borders with Colorado and ports of entry, deputies can identify commercial truck drivers who aren’t following the rules, as well as other drivers who aren’t safe around semis, Kozak said.
“Our traffic unit, which I have three full-time deputies assigned to traffic enforcement, they are looking for these violations every day,” the sheriff told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “And they seem to be bringing in either unlicensed or undocumented truck drivers every other day.
“So, it’s a continuing thing for us.”
He said this week’s three-day traffic detail was a joint effort with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but that it wasn’t an ICE operation.
“They brought in extra officers from Colorado to assist for these three days,” Kozak said. “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.”
The ICE agents were there because the county’s continuing enforcement of commercial truck rules has shown that there is some overlap there, he said. And with a three-day operation like the one this Monday through Wednesday, it was more efficient to have ICE there rather than call the agency 32 times.
“This is completely about safety,” Kozak added, and not doing ICE’s job. “We’re seeing in Wyoming and throughout the country, these big trucks are causing crashes and people are dying.”
Acting For ICE?
Not everyone is convinced the operation was safety-focused and not a veiled ICE roundup of undocumented or suspect truckers.
In response to “Truck Around and Find Out,” the ACLU of Wyoming says in a statement to Cowboy State Daily that 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,” the group’s executive director, Libby Skarin, said in the statement.
“Once again, his words aren’t aligning with what’s really happening,” she added.
She said that by turning over 32 truck drivers in the country illegally, the LCSO was basically acting as an arm of ICE.
“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 said.
Crossover Issues
Kozak said the reality is, there’s a lot of overlap between his focus on keeping the highways safe and immigration-related concerns, like undocumented drivers and operators who can’t read English.
He said he’s seen drivers who are legal residents and have valid commercial driver’s licenses but still cause crashes because they can’t read highway warnings — especially about wind in Wyoming.
“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 said.
“A lot of those blow-overs are from drivers who don’t understand English,” he added. “So yeah, it’s a big safety risk.”
Overall, 177 traffic stops were made during “Truck Around and Find Out,” he said, adding that there are a lot of truckers “doing it right.”
“I especially want to thank the truck drivers that were honking at our deputies, waving at them, stopping and thanking our deputies for helping them keep their industry safe and our roadways safe in Laramie County,” Kozak said in a video about the operation posted to the department’s Facebook page.
Something Kozak said that surprised him about this week’s operation is how many of those 177 stops were for commercial trucks that sped past the ports of entry when they were required to stop.
At times, so many trucks were bypassing the ports “we didn’t have enough deputies to pull over the violators,” he said.
Kozak has said he’s not concerned about any criticism he may get for operations like this week’s or having a mutual aid agreement with ICE.
If they help build a reputation that people shouldn’t break the law in Laramie County, that’s what he wants, he said in the video.
“So hopefully, now the word is out that this is not the county that you want to ‘truck around and find out,’” he said. “And when I say, ‘truck around,’ I mean drive a truck undocumented, unlicensed and unsafe.”
Contact Greg Johnson at greg@cowboystatedaily.com
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
