A Kenyan long-haul truck driver has recounted a harrowing three-week ordeal in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody following what began as a routine freight delivery, in an account that has sparked fresh concern among Kenyan diaspora communities across the United States.
James Wambui, who arrived in the United States in December 2021 and later transitioned into commercial trucking after obtaining all necessary legal documentation, was stopped on May 12, 2026, at a Department of Transportation weigh station in Middletown, Virginia, while completing a cargo run from New York to South Carolina. He had earlier passed a border patrol inspection after departing Texas without incident.
According to Wambui, a sheriff at the station requested his logbook and licence before walking to the back of the premises, where ICE officers were stationed. The officers subsequently arrested him despite his possession of valid immigration documents. More than 40 other truck drivers stopped at the same station were released without incident.
“We need to take care of ourselves out there. It is not safe,” Wambui said during an interview with The B-InPowerD Movement, a U.S.-based multimedia advocacy organization that brought his case to wider public attention.
Wambui was transferred to the Farmville Detention Center, a facility located six hours away in a rural part of Virginia, where he remained for over three weeks. He said ICE agents insisted their records showed he was in the country unlawfully despite the documentation he presented.
His release on June 5, 2026, came after his attorneys highlighted his marriage to an American citizen, Jessica R. Drake, alongside a pending family-based immigration petition and an unresolved asylum application. The legal battle has cost him nearly Ksh6.5 million (approximately $50,000) in out-of-pocket expenses.
However, his troubles did not end with his release. ICE has retained his commercial driver’s licence, work authorization, and Social Security documents, leaving him unable to return to the trucking career he spent months building.
Wambui used his platform to issue direct warnings to fellow immigrants. “Do not agree to a pro bono lawyer. Look for your own lawyer and do not sign any documents, so you can have a better chance of release,” he urged.
His wife further pointed to Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger’s February 2026 Executive Directive, which ended cooperation agreements between state law enforcement and federal ICE agents, arguing that confusion over the policy left her husband vulnerable during the roadside encounter.
Wambui’s case is not isolated. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security updated its priority removal database in June, listing 45 Kenyan nationals as priority deportation cases, underscoring the precarious position of many Kenyans living and working in the United States under the Trump administration’s intensified immigration crackdown.
