PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) said it’s using Commercial Vehicle Inspections to find undocumented migrants, a practice immigration attorneys have claimed is discrimination.
WATCH BELOW: 'They’re clearly going after landscapers,' Commissioner Christopher McVoy tells WPTV
Those inspections have led to people getting detained including a high-profile instance where border patrol agents and state troopers detained a US citizen in July.
State data shows the number of commercial vehicle inspections conducted by FHP have increased 138%, according to records WPTV obtained from an open records request.
Dave Kerner, who leads the Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed agency in charge of FHP called the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, said they are using every tactic to find people in the country unlawfully.
“The Florida Highway Patrol is using every asset and every strategy and every tactic to interact with and apprehend under 287G people that are in this country unlawfully,” he said, when WPTV asked about the practice of using commercial inspections to find undocumented migrants earlier this month.
Lake Worth Beach City Commissioner Christopher McVoy said he’s noticed an increase presence from FHP, to the point where he’s taken videos and photos of the department in the city. He said he often sees these state troopers pulling over landscape trucks for violating commercial vehicle rules.
WATCH: Video shows tactics used to arrest undocumented migrants
“It’s not just racial profiling, but occupation profiling,” McVoy said. “They’re clearly going after landscapers. They’re going after people in vans.”
He said he believes immigration enforcement is the rationale behind the increase in state trooper’s presence based off his conversations with the law enforcement agency. McVoy also saw one of those traffic stops, first reported by the Lake Worth Beach Independent along with a former city commissioner where highway patrol detained a man back in August.
The video released by the Guatemalan-Maya Center shows the troopers explaining the man didn’t have a license and was driving an unregistered truck. But, the woman in the video said the stickers on the truck shows he had the proper registrations before she was asked to give the deputies 25 feet of space based on the state’s new HALO law.
McVoy said the troopers did give him some additional reasons why the truck was pulled over once he came to the scene.
“They [Florida Highway Patrol] said the load wasn’t secure,” McVoy said about their rationale for the traffic stop. “The load wasn’t secure, but it was vegetation from some job that was all below the edges [of the truck]. It looked fine.”
Both federal and state court records show law enforcement have used commercial vehicle inspections to pull people over then border patrol agents, sometimes traveling in the same cars as state troopers, check people’s papers. The tactic has led to arrests of people with and without a criminal records, according to records WPTV obtained. Data shows these inspections have been done at least 93 times this year, compared to 39 times in 2024 and 34 times in 2023.
Attorney Richard Hubjar said he was surprised to see Kerner said they are using the practice to capture undocumented migrants so clearly and boldly. He believes the practice is racial profiling, because they’re going after people based off the vehicle they’re driving.
"It's a problem. It's a huge concern, because obviously it's racial profiling,” Hubjar said. “It's basically pulling people over for what they're driving and the type of work that they are doing, which for all intensive purposes is immigrants."
He said he’s seen more immigration cases come from situations where people are driving work trucks related to industries stereotypically involving immigrants or undocumented migrants. McVoy said these practices are disrupting their communities, particularly their trust with law enforcement.
The Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach told WPTV about a similar sentiment earlier this year in April.
Read more of WPTV's related coverage below:
Region N Palm Beach County
U.S. citizen detained by Border Patrol, FHP in Palm Beach County
State
