U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may have dropped off the radar a little bit after things settled down in Minneapolis, but a flurry of arrests just outside Pittsburgh suggests that ICE is as active as ever and addressing a problem that’s been a long time coming.
ICE arrested a reported 13 people at a driver’s license center in a quiet, rural location 40 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh on April 3.
According to WPXI-TV, the local East Franklin Police Department placed calls to ICE “after concerned citizens reported an abnormally large amount of individuals outside the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) driver licensing center in Kittanning, Pennsylvania.”
The center, which is normally only open two days a week, was “overrun” by fighting-age young men from other countries applying for driver’s licenses and seeking other services. Witnesses said the center was filled with long lines.
EPIC!🔥🔥🔥
ICE carried out a major operation in Kittanning, PA. They sent letters to truck drivers about renewing their CDLs, prompting them to show up at the DMV. Agents then moved in and detained dozens of undocumented migrants.
Here’s the before-and-after result. pic.twitter.com/z2GCydOhRs
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) April 4, 2026
When ICE arrived, federal agents were able to arrest 13 illegal aliens from countries including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. At least one person allegedly resisted arrest and reportedly assaulted a law enforcement officer.
Local residents praised ICE for its quick response to the situation and for taking their calls seriously.
Jason Koontz, a DHS spokesperson, said, “Residents thanked ICE for investigating their concerns and responding to their calls.”
This was more than your usual roundup of illegal aliens. These individuals may have been involved in more illicit activity. Here is more from Koontz:
The West Kittanning Driver License Center was processing medical form updates for current holders of non-domiciled commercial learner’s permit or driver license holders, which resulted in a large number of customers at West Kittanning today.
If you’re wondering what “non-domiciled” means, the U.S. Supreme Court spent a lot of time on that very word when it heard oral arguments in the birthright citizenship case. Non-domiciled people are individuals who don’t live here. Their home is in another country.
So, a group of foreign nationals who likely speak little or no English show up unannounced in a sleepy little country town in Pennsylvania, and, if I’m reading this right, they needed to update their commercial learner’s permit — not their driver’s license — as part of the process of updating their medical forms?
PennDOT issued a statement of its own:
Pennsylvania uses the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to verify legal presence for all non-domiciled commercial learner’s permit or driver license applicants. That federal system confirms immigration status in real-time.
For non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits and driver licenses, we remain under a pause of issuing those documents, as directed by the United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Per the direction of FMCSA, no non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits or driver licenses were issued or reissued.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that Armstrong County Sheriff Frank Pitzer said when he forwarded information in the morning on the unusual activity at the driver’s license center, ICE did not give him any indication that it would follow up, visit the site, or arrest anyone. He said the federal agents showed up before 1:30 p.m., without any advance notice, and immediately commenced arresting the suspected illegals.
The sheriff said some of the illegal aliens who were at the center when ICE arrived may have fled and may still be hiding in the area. As a result, local law enforcement is on the lookout for these stragglers.
Other reports are that this entire operation was a sting, organized by ICE. More to the point, ICE may have sent notices to commercial truck drivers that their licenses were expiring and instructed them to go to this specific Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office at the assigned date and time. Apparently, dozens of illegal aliens showed up, and ICE was in the shadows waiting for them.
Sting or no sting, the end result is very encouraging, and I’m here for it.
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