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The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out a hard-line operation on South Carolina’s highways in mid-May, arresting 114 illegal migrants and seizing a large stash of drugs and cash. Operation Safe Drive focused on I-26 and I-85 and involved state partners. This is another clear sign that interior enforcement works when federal and state authorities actually cooperate.
Operation Safe Drive: ICE Arrests and Drug Seizures on I-26 and I-85
ICE says the three-day sweep resulted in 114 arrests, 145 traffic stops and 77 vehicle inspections, and even took 22 drivers and vehicles out of service. Officers boarding a commercial bus found about 10 kilograms of cocaine — roughly $200,000 worth — along with cash. Officials described the arrests as both criminal and administrative; names and formal charges have not been released yet, but the raw numbers speak for themselves.
State Partners and the 287(g) Program
South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) worked with ICE on this operation. SLED joined the federal 287(g) partnership in 2025 along with dozens of other agencies, giving local law enforcement more tools to enforce federal immigration laws. If states want to stop illegal immigration and the crime that rides with it, this kind of partnership is exactly what they should be doing — not tweeting virtue-signals while ignoring the highways.
Highway Enforcement Is a Smart Strategy
Interior operations on highways have been a repeated tactic for ICE across the country, and for good reason: smugglers and criminal networks use buses, trucks and private cars to move people and drugs between states. Recent operations in other states have produced similar arrest totals, showing a pattern — not a fluke. Stopping commercial vehicles and screening passengers is a practical, effective way to catch smugglers and remove dangerous illegal entrants before they spread out and vanish into cities.
Make no mistake: this was enforcement, plain and simple. The choice facing policymakers is whether they want more of it or less. For those who pretend border chaos doesn’t affect communities far from the line, remind them that illegal crossings and drug runs travel on the same roads your kids ride to soccer practice. Law-and-order conservatives should cheer SLED and ICE for doing the job the federal government is paid to do — and demand more tools, funding and political will so these operations aren’t the exception but the norm.
