GARY, Ind. — More than 220 undocumented immigrant drivers have been arrested in Indiana as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Midway Blitz, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday.

About a quarter of those arrested were truck drivers who had been issued commercial driver’s licenses, the department said.

“If you are here driving on our streets illegally and our highways, you are endangering our citizens and your days are numbered. Too many families across this country have felt pain and been victimized and lost loved ones because of these illegal drivers,” Noem said at a news conference in Gary, Indiana, on Thursday, where she was joined by Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons.

The Republican Indiana governor has been working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Indiana State Police to increase commercial vehicle enforcement since September, when DHS launched Operation Midway Blitz to remove non-citizens from in and around Chicago.

“This operation is a real-world example of how sanctuary policies negatively impact the whole country,” Lyons said. “What happens in one state, like the issuance of a commercial driver’s license to an illegal alien, spills over to other states” as drivers travel.

Lyons said many of the 50 drivers arrested as part of the operation were issued their licenses in so-called sanctuary states that have laws preventing them from cooperating with ICE agents, including California, Illinois and New York.

Noem said Thursday that of the 3,000 total arrests so far through Operation Midway Blitz, many of the individuals had criminal records. She said an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who had been convicted of felony cruelty toward a child was also in possession of a fraudulent driver’s license and that an undocumented individual from Nicaragua was arrested for driving under the influence and transporting drugs.

“This is going to take a joint effort,” Braun said Thursday. “Every state is a border state when you’ve got to contend with stuff like this. Operation Midway Blitz is working to make our highways safer.”

The issue of foreign-born truck drivers first came to the fore in August, following a fatal crash in Florida involving India-born driver Harjinder Singh, who was using a commercial driver’s license issued in California. The California Department of Motor Vehicles told Spectrum News that its issuance of a non-domiciled license to Singh had followed all federal and state laws and that it confirmed Singh’s legal presence in the United States with the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system before issuing him a Real ID.

Since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was established in 1937, the agency has required commercial vehicle drivers to be able to read and speak English well enough to converse with the public, understand highway traffic signs and signals and to respond to official inquiries. While inspectors have frequently cited drivers for violating the rule, the requirement that they be placed out of service had not been enforced since 2014.

That changed in May, when the Department of Transportation issued a new rule for truck drivers’ English proficiency. It cited safety concerns as the rationale for enforcement of a longstanding federal law that requires commercial truck drivers speak English to remain in operation. The rule called for commercial drivers who are not proficient in English to be removed from service beginning June 25.

The DOT’s English language proficiency enforcement guidance stemmed from an executive order President Donald Trump signed in April to enact “commonsense rules for the road for America’s truck drivers.” The order directed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to rescind guidance developed during the Obama administration that allowed non-English-speaking commercial drivers to remain in service even if they violated a national regulation requiring English proficiency.

"We are using every tool that we have in our toolbox to make sure states comply," Duffy said at a news conference in Washington on Thursday, where he announced new enforcement actions.

He said the FMCSA will pursue so-called "mills" for commercial driver's licenses that are issuing them to unqualified drivers throughout the country, as well as the companies that employ illegally licensed drivers.

"I don't have a massive law enforcement wing like ICE does," he said. "That's why I'm grateful for Secretary Noem for not only bringing attention to this matter but actually using ICE agents to go out and make sure that we have compliance with some of our laws that are on the books from DOT."