ICE agents working with Iowa troopers to target drivers bypassing weigh stations

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are working with Iowa State Troopers to target potentially illegal immigrants bypassing interstate weigh stations, court documents show. 

Des Moines Register reports that court filings in immigration cases show Iowa State Troopers working with ICE agents to pull over commercial truck drivers who bypass weigh stations along interstates. Troopers will track down the drivers who bypassed the weigh station and send them back, where ICE officials check their documents to ensure they are in the country legally. 

In Iowa, weigh station violations alone cannot lead to jail time, but ICE is able to immediately detain a truck driver based on an illegal immigration status. 

In late 2025, bill HR 5177, also known as the Weigh Station Enforcement to Intercept and Guard Highways (WEIGH) Act, was introduced. The bill would codify an executive order requiring all weigh stations along interstate highways to review the CDLs of truck drivers and to verify their English proficiency. If passed, states that fail to comply would risk losing federal funding for highways, and their CDL program authority. 

Iowa State Patrol’s public information officer, Sgt. Alex Dinkla, says that the ISP and Iowa DPS “has always cooperated and assisted, to the extent permitted by law, with the investigative efforts of the United States Department of Homeland Security and the United States Department of Justice and its subsidiary agencies.” Arguing that this cooperation “is no different than that which exists with other federal law enforcement agencies.”