Citizen tipsters helped bust a group of illegal immigrant drivers at a Pennsylvania DMV, leading to the arrest of 13 people by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The chaotic scene unfolded on Friday, April 3, at a PennDOT Driver’s Licensing Center near Kittanning, Pennsylvania. Foreigners who had been waiting to renew their commercial driver’s licenses scattered and fled after ICE agents arrived.
Long lines inside and a packed parking lot caught the attention of neighbors and other customers at the facility. Witnesses also reported people hiding in semi-truck cabs and running through yards.
The 13 individuals were determined to be illegal immigrants and arrested outside the West Kittanning location. They are from countries including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
One of them resisted arrest and assaulted a local officer and could face additional charges, Fox News Digital reported.
Several residents who live near the facility, including Brigitte Hepler, told local outlet TribLive that she tried to contact ICE after her husband noticed the busy parking lot.
“There were too many red flags,” she said. “It made you alert.”
When federal agents arrived, multiple people fled through nearby yards and abandoned vehicles as officers tried to question and detain them, officials and witnesses said.
Kittanning, Pennsylvania, is about 40 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Some of the people who had been waiting at the center sped through residential streets and tried to hide in yards.
Armstrong County Sheriff Frank Pitzer told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he received a call Friday morning reporting a large line of what were believed to be immigrant drivers that had formed at the Kittanning driver license center. He said he reached out to ICE, but the agency didn’t seem too concerned.
Hours later, he learned that ICE showed up at the center and mass chaos ensued.
“Numerous people scattered throughout the community,” he told the Post-Gazette. “… It went even as far as people exiting their vehicles and abandoning them on the street.”
The DMV bust comes amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign truckers with non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses and new rules for English language proficiency and other standards.
As of March 16, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued new final rules non-domiciled CDLs to H-2A, H-2B, or E-2 visa holders. A nationwide FMCSA audit found major procedural and documentation errors when issuing non-domiciled CDLs in several states.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has joined other Democratic governors in refuting claims that his state improperly issued nondomiciled CDLs to illegal immigrants.
Across the country, multiple illegal immigrant truckers have been found with Pennsylvania-issued licenses following accidents and targeted highway enforcements.
In February, Shapiro’s team fired back at DHS after a semitruck driver involved in quadruple fatality crash in Indiana had a CDL issued in Pennsylvania. State officials claim the trucker, Bekzhan Beishekeev, a 30-year-old national of Kyrgyzstan, had legal status when he was issued the license in 2025.
Another blame game broke out between state and federal officials after an illegal immigrant with a Northeast Philadelphia address was arrested during a roadside immigration operation in Oklahoma.
Authorities said the Good Friday raid in Kittanning followed multiple tips from the public. They reported numerous suspected immigrant drivers—many who were operating tractor-trailers.
TribLive reported that DHS spokesman Jason Koontz said ICE was called by East Franklin Township Police Department after “concerned citizens reported an abnormally large amount of individuals” outside the center.
A Butler-area firefighter, Zach Scherer, told Fox News he filmed the scene and called DHS to report it. He noticed a large number of people gathered outside the facility.
Another man filmed a line inside the DLC and asked the people where they were from, but it’s not clear if people in the videos were among the illegal immigrants arrested by ICE.
“Residents thanked ICE for investigating their concerns and responding to their calls. The incident remains under investigation,” Koontz said in a statement.
Another witness and DLC neighbor, Gary Klingensmith, told TribLive and other outlets that the activity at the center was “odd.” There were multiple big rigs in the parking lot.
He saw people packed inside the cabs of the tractor-trailers. “They opened the door, 10 people came out,” he said.
Klingensmith said he tried to call ICE that morning “when I noticed all the foreigners in there and nobody was speaking English.”
Hepler told TribLive she helped agents with detail on the local area because some men were hiding on a nearby hillside. She also pushed back against online rumors and “racist” claims.
“It has nothing to do with race,” she said. “We were being protective.”
In a statement, PennDOT Press Secretary Alexis Campbell said PennDOT did not coordinate with federal officials in “any capacity in relation to this activity.”
The West Kittanning Driver License Center was processing medical form updates for people with non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits or driver’s licenses, which “resulted in a large number of customers at West Kittanning,” Campbell said in the statement.
However, Pittsburgh-based ICE rapid response group Frontline Dignity released a statement about the incident blaming the surge in people on a website error.
“An alleged website error is directing people to the West Kittanning DMV for in-person commercial drivers’ license renewal, but the service is not available there,” Frontline Dignity’s Facebook statement read.
KDKA-TV reported it did find a sign saying DOT/CDL exams are offered at the building, but the sign was at the chiropractor’s office, not the DMV.
PennDOT uses a database to verify immigration status, Campbell said, adding the agency has complied with a federal pause on issuing new, or reissuing, non-domiciled CDLs since September following federal directives.
“PennDOT remains steadfast in following state and federal law and there is no activity or transaction occurring at West Kittanning or elsewhere that violates state or federal law,” Campbell said.
