CHANDIGARH: Some 30 Indian nationals living illegally in the United States have been arrested in California after being found driving semi-trucks using commercial driver’s licenses, according to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The arrests were made by Border Patrol agents in the El Centro Sector during immigration checkpoint stops and joint enforcement operations over the past few weeks.

CBP said 49 undocumented immigrants holding commercial driver’s licenses were arrested between November 23 and December 12. Thirty of those were Indian nationals.

Authorities said most of the licenses were issued by US states. California accounted for 31 of the commercial driver’s licenses involved, while others were issued by states such as Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

CBP said the operation was launched following several fatal highway accidents involving undocumented drivers operating semi-trucks. In recent months, multiple Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with deadly crashes. In August, Harjinder Singh was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide in Florida.

That same month, Partap Singh was arrested after a multi-vehicle pileup in California. In October, Jashanpreet Singh was arrested following a crash that killed three US citizens. In another case, Rajinder Kumar was charged with criminally negligent homicide after two people died in a collision involving his truck.