A Kenyan truck driver is being detained by the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The truck driver who has been identified as Cyrus Thairu was captured and detained by ICE on March 26, 2026.
He was on a journey heading towards New York which is located on the east when he was stopped by ICE at a checkpoint near the Mexico border west of the country.
Upon interrogation, Thairu was found with an expired B2 visitor’s visa. He was arrested and put under detention by ICE. He then filed an asylum claim from the ICE facility in the State of Illinois. He is however facing deportation proceedings with a hearing for his case set for May 4, 2026.
Thairu’s sister Joyce Mumbi Thairu who lives in the US says that they have hired an immigration lawyer known as Irene Mugambi to defend Thairu and are seeking to raise about Sh2 million to secure his release pending the hearing and determination of his case.
“Thairu has been in removal proceedings for over one month now. If we can’t raise the bond, he will have to remain in ICE detention. The Kenyan community is in fear for his welfare as he has a wife and kids in Kenya and is in hazardous detention facilities,” Mumbi told a local daily.
Over the recent weeks, ICE has increased crackdowns on major highways targeting undocumented immigrants and holders of commercial driver’s licenses which were improperly issued. One of these crackdowns has been the Operation Highway Sentinel which was launched in December 2005 by ICE. The operation targeted trucking companies and truck drivers in Central and Northern California and resulted in the arrest of over 100 truck drivers who were in the US illegally.
READ MORE: I got ‘Blue Paper’ when my US visa was approved, then hours later got ‘Yellow Paper’
On February 5, 2026, ICE arrested a semi-truck driver who was accused of causing an accident that claimed the lives of four people on February 3. The driver had been issued a commercial driver’s license by the State of Pennyslyvania.
“In recent months, we’ve seen a disturbing pattern of criminal illegal aliens driving commercial vehicles on American roads, directly threatening public safety and resulting in senseless loss of life,” the department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
Some Kenyans who are out of status in the US have taken gone as far as self-deporting themselves to avoid being captured and detained by ICE. Take Sam Kang’ethe. He self-deported from the United States in the summer of 2025. He took this bold decision when it dawned on him that he was facing two choices: to either return to Kenya on his own volition or face ICE which was itching to arrest and deport him.
Moving from the United States to Kenya was no easy choice at all. He left behind a wife and three children aged 13, 11, and five years at his home in Lansing, Michigan.
“I resigned to go back to Kenya in May 2025,” he told the media, adding that his wife had prepared their kids about their father’s imminent departure from the United States.
Mr. Kang’ethe told the media that although he chose self-deportation from US, he has no criminal record in the country. However, he was facing removal from the country after an immigration official ruled that a previous marriage that he had entered into in 2014 was fraudulent.
He had a court case in court whose hearing was scheduled to take place in January 2026. He was planning to present evidence that the ruling by the immigration official was wrong. However, having a pending court case could not prevent ICE from going after him. Apparently, with the ruling by the immigration official, Kang’ethe was legally deportable.
“You see people being picked up when they drop their kids off at school. And these were the kind of things I used to do. I cannot imagine myself taking my kids to school and then being picked up by the ICE,” said Kang’ethe during an interview with local media.
