The country continues to suffer from the consequences of former President Joe Biden’s disastrous immigration policies, as well as those caused by “sanctuary” states and cities established by Democrats around the country.
One of the ways Illegal immigrants have been able to integrate into U.S. communities through Democrat policies of issuing them driver’s licenses, and that includes a license to operate a tractor-trailer.
President Trump’s administration has been working to strip non-citizens of their commercial driving licenses after a series of deadly accidents involving tractor-trailers, often caused by foreign drivers who don’t know U.S. traffic laws or cannot read English.
As such, this week the president said his administration will intensify its scrutiny of commercial driver’s licenses issued to migrants who are in the country illegally, as well as the trucking schools that train them, following the death of a Pennsylvania state trooper who was fatally struck by a migrant truck driver earlier this month.
Trump also said his administration is taking what he described as “historic action” to identify and remove migrant truck drivers who are in the country illegally from the nation’s roadways.
“My administration will soon take historic action to get illegal alien truck drivers off the roads who are just killing a lot of people,” Trump said.
“They can’t read signs. Many of them are on drugs or alcohol, and they shouldn’t be driving these things,” he added.
Trump made the remarks Tuesday during the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit in Carlisle, where he referenced the death of Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Pahira.
According to the president, Pahira was killed while conducting a safety check on another vehicle along Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County when he was struck by a commercial truck driven by a Haitian migrant who was in the country illegally and held a Massachusetts-issued commercial driver’s license.
“We’re here in Pennsylvania, where State Trooper Michael Pahira, Jr., was killed just two weeks ago by an illegal alien operating a semi-truck on a commercial driver’s license, which he should never have had,” Trump said, according to WGAL-TV.
According to officials, the driver, 33-year-old Michael Bon, had been living in the United States illegally for at least a year.
Authorities said he entered the country on July 2, 2024, during the Biden administration.
Officials said Bon applied for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) on Oct. 26, 2024, but the application was never approved.
They added that he remained in the country unlawfully and was notified by the Department of Homeland Security in June of last year that he would be required to return to Haiti.
Among the steps the Trump administration says it is taking are increased enforcement actions against truck driving schools that it alleges have trained migrants who are in the country illegally.
In February, the Department of Transportation (DOT) announced it would inspect the operations of more than 550 truck driving schools nationwide.
The agency said inspectors would review the schools for compliance with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration safety standards.
“For too long, the trucking industry has operated like the Wild, Wild, West, where anything goes and nobody asks any questions,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.
“The buck stops with me,” he added, per Breitbart News.
“American families should have confidence that our school bus and truck drivers are following every letter of the law and that starts with receiving proper training before getting behind the wheel,” Duffy noted further.
Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported earlier this month that 75 schools are being charged with fraud.
“NEW: DHS [Department of Homeland Security] and DOT have announced they’ve identified 75 entry level truck driver CDL schools across the U.S. that are suspected of fraudulently helping non-citizen drivers qualify for CDLs, and the agencies are partnering to investigate them, with HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] and DOT already visiting some of the schools to probe them,” Melugin wrote on X.
“Some of the schools are suspected of falsifying training records, providing improper certifications, and failing to properly train the drivers,” he added.
