Unidentified federal agents arrested an Oakland truck driver last Tuesday and whisked him away to parts unknown, videos shared with The Oaklandside show. The arrest was confirmed by the driver\u2019s company.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two videos taken on Feb. 24 show several unidentified men arresting a truck driver near Third and Adeline streets in West Oakland. The videos were given to the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, a local environmental justice organization, which in turn shared them with The Oaklandside.<\/p>\n
One video, shot from across the street, shows several agents, two of whom appear to be in plainclothes, patting down and arresting the driver of a red container truck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Using a professional video tag and codec tool, The Oaklandside was able to verify that the video was taken last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the other video, taken from near the front of the truck, the driver can be heard shouting his name to the cameraperson, though the name is difficult to make out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The person recording this second video asks one of the federal agents for identification; he responds, \u201cNo.\u201d None of the men appear to have insignia indicating what agency they belong to. One agent wears a vest that says, \u201cPolice Federal Agent.\u201d The video records the agent stopping the videographer from approaching a vehicle where the driver appears to have been placed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t see how they\u2019re treating him,\u201d the cameraperson says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d the federal agent responds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the video, the cameraperson again asks for the agent\u2019s name. This time, the agent doesn\u2019t respond at all. When the cameraperson asks to see the license plate of the vehicle carrying the driver, the agent responds, \u201cIf you can see them, go for it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
We were unable to identify the person who took this video or the one taken across the street.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 805, known as the \u201cNo Vigilantes Act,\u201d into law <\/a>in September. The law requires ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and Homeland Security agents operating in California to identify themselves while conducting operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Oaklandside was able to confirm that the driver was working for a transportation company called Raj Transport. A dispatcher for the company said that one of their drivers was arrested last week by federal agents. The dispatcher declined to share the man\u2019s name, citing confidentiality concerns.<\/p>\n The dispatcher said the driver has worked for the company for over two years and had applied for a green card. The dispatcher said he didn\u2019t know which federal agency had arrested the driver, or where he currently is being held.\u00a0<\/p>\n Port spokesperson Justin Berton told The Oaklandside, \u201cThe port was not made aware of any state or federal law enforcement activity outside its facilities during this time frame.\u201d U.S. Customs and Border Protection, ICE, and DHS didn\u2019t respond to inquiries from The Oaklandside.\u00a0<\/p>\n Oakland leaders have been bracing for federal immigration enforcement actions since Donald Trump took office last January promising to embark on the largest deportation operation<\/a> in American history. Immigration operations have triggered civil unrest in several cities, and federal agents recently killed two people in Minneapolis and were frequently documented arresting people in their vehicles.<\/p>\n To date, ICE actions have been sporadic and relatively small-scale in Oakland. Last August, agents arrested six people <\/a>at a home in East Oakland. In September, ICE agents entered an Alameda County courthouse<\/a> and arrested a man who was leaving a court hearing. CBP agents deployed to a Coast Guard facility near Oakland last October in preparation for an operation in the Bay Area, sparking a protest<\/a> in which a federal agent shot a pastor in the face with a pepper ball. Agents also shot and wounded a person who backed a U-Haul rental truck<\/a> toward federal agents. The planned operation was called off.\u00a0<\/p>\n A threat to strip licenses from immigrant drivers<\/p>\n The detaining of the truck driver in Oakland comes as 20,000 truckers in California, including many in the Bay Area, face the prospect of losing their commercial driver\u2019s license.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Trump Administration through its transportation department has looked to withdraw licenses for all noncitizen truckers in the aftermath of crashes in California, Alabama, Florida, and Texas in recent months involving immigrant truck drivers. Citing several of the crashes, federal transportation secretary Sean Duffy declared<\/a> that immigrant truck drivers posed a safety danger to Americans and announced a new draft rule to restrict their access to commercial licenses and an enforcement action against the state of California.\u00a0<\/p>\n In late 2025, facing federal scrutiny, California\u2019s Department of Motor Vehicles cancelled tens of thousands commercial licenses of noncitizens \u2014 but was promptly sued by the Asian Law Caucus and other civil rights firms. They won a 60-day stay, until March 6, which has allowed immigrant drivers to continue using their licenses to work as the case went through the courts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just last week, around the time the truck driver was taken by federal agents on Third Street, an Alameda County Superior Court Judge issued a tentative ruling<\/a> that immigrants could keep their current commercial driver\u2019s license in California for now.<\/p>\n At question is whether immigrant drivers can renew or obtain new licenses from the California DMV under the new federal rule<\/a>, finalized in February, that limits immigrants\u2019 eligibility for commercial licenses to those who \u201chold specific, verifiable employment-based nonimmigrant status.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The judge hearing the case in Alameda County, Karin Schwartz, has, as of Monday afternoon, not yet provided her full ruling on the case.<\/p>\n