On Monday, November 10, Homeland Security announced the arrest of Ahmed Nenni, an illegal alien from Mauritania (Northwest Africa) who managed to obtain a Michigan commercial driver’s license (CDL) while employed by Zain Express, a trucking company based in Dearborn.

According to Homeland Security, Nenni entered the United States illegally on September 15, 2023, through San Diego before being released by the Biden administration. Big shocker, right? Who exactly WASN’T released by the Biden administration?

Nenni was later located and arrested as part of Operation Midway Blitz, an enforcement effort that targeted illegal truck drivers. Arrested on October 16, he was one of more than 140 illegal immigrant truck drivers arrested in the state of Indiana. Nenni is now held at the Joe Corley Processing Center in Texas pending immigration proceedings.

Nenni’s wife, Elizabeth, has set up a GoFundMe site titled “Support Ahmed Nenni’s Fight for Family Unity” which has already raised a little over $2,000. On the site, she says it’s to “Help reunite our family and cover urgent legal and living expenses.” She continues to say that their life has been turned upside down after her husband was detained by ICE. Married in April of this year, Elizabeth says that ICE has “not deemed his status legitimate.”

Zain Express LLC, listed in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safety and Fitness Electronic Records System, operates out of what appears to be a residential home on Audette Street in Dearborn. According to the licensing and insurance information on the same site, the company’s authority status is listed as inactive with means they are not legally allowed to haul freight for hire across state lines.

The circumstances surrounding the company and its hiring practices raise immediate concerns about employer verification and the rigor of Michigan’s commercial licensing safeguards. These safeguards are intended to ensure that those operating heavy freight vehicles on public highways are properly vetted, trained, and lawfully eligible to work in the United States.

The situation leaves Michigan residents with some fairly obvious questions: Who exactly is checking IDs over at the Secretary of State these days – a bouncer at a college bar? The systems meant to verify legal status, employment eligibility, and commercial driver qualifications all appear to be ineffective. Whether this was incompetence or as a quiet policy choice, the result is the same: the public is the one who is taking the risk.