The funeral procession for fallen Pa. State Trooper Michael E. Pahira, Jr. makes its way down Centre Street in Ashland on July 8, 2026.
Posted on 07/15/2026 5:59:14 PM PDT by lightman
President Donald Trump Wednesday pledged a new, federally-led crackdown against foreign truck drivers who do not have a clean immigration status.
“My administration will soon take historic action to get illegal alien truck drivers who are just killing a lot of people (off the road),” Trump said.
“They can’t read signs. Many of them are on drugs or alcohol and they shouldn’t be driving these things. And they’re, they came in totally illegally. We don’t want them.”
According to recent media reports, there are well over 100,000 undocumented persons working as paid truck drivers across the nation.
Trump made his announcement during an appearance at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit at Carlisle Barracks.
There were a couple salient connections.
Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Pahira Jr., 44, died July 1 after he was struck by a struck driver while performing a routine inspection of another tractor-trailer on the shoulder of Interstate 81 in Cass Township, Schuylkill County.
The striking driver, 33-year-old Michael Bon of Brockton, Mass., has been charged with homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, reckless driving and related offenses.
But to Trump’s point Wednesday, Bon is also a Haitian refugee who had been denied temporary protective status and was not in the U.S. legally at the time of the crash.
The president did not say exactly how the administration will remove the undocumented drivers from the road.
In March, a different Trump administration rule took effect barring some groups of immigrants with temporary status, including DACA recipients, from getting or renewing commercial driver’s licenses.
Trump said his new effort will be paired with a plan to back-fill the lost drivers’ seats with an offer of automatic commercial drivers licenses for any veterans with heavy truck experience in their tours of duty.
“We’re going to replace them with proud American veterans,” Trump said.
“We’re going to say any American who’s driven a heavy truck for our military will automatically be eligible for a commercial driving license.”
Critics of the foreign driver crackdown have argued immigration opponents are using anecdotal stories about fatal crashes as a cudgel in their drive for deportations.
The better approach to traffic safety, they counter, is improving oversight of the training programs offered by commercial truck-driving schools.
Pahira graduated from the State Police Academy in 2007. He was a motor carrier inspector at PSP Frackville.
The funeral procession for fallen Pa. State Trooper Michael E. Pahira, Jr. makes its way down Centre Street in Ashland on July 8, 2026.
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GO.AFTER.THE.TRUCKING.COMPANIES.WHO.EMPLOY.THEM.
Find out who’s hiring them and go after them HARD.
For ANY occupation.
Every Interstate highway needs to have mandatory US DOT checkpoints for big rigs. Weigh stations could do double duty.
I guess it could be intrusive for the legal citizen drivers, but they could appreciate it.
The Trump administration is removing unqualified and undocumented immigrant truck drivers through a combination of federal regulations, state-level audits, and the revocation of illegally issued Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs).
The primary initiatives enforcing this crackdown include:
Stricter CDL Eligibility Rules: U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy finalized a rule barring foreign drivers who have not been subject to consular and interagency screening from obtaining commercial licenses. This rule prevents those lacking permanent legal status or work authorization from gaming the system using Employment Authorization Documents (EADs).
State Audits and License Revocation: The Department of Transportation is conducting a nationwide audit of states—such as California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas—that previously issued non-compliant, non-domiciled CDLs. This has resulted in the revocation of over 28,000 licenses.
Strict English-Language Enforcement: Drivers who fail to meet Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) English-language proficiency requirements are being actively placed out of service to ensure they can read road signs and understand safety instructions.
Decertifying Training Providers: The administration has removed nearly 3,000 CDL training providers from the FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry for failing to equip trainees with proper standards.
Legislative and Vetting Pushes: Trump is pressing Congress to pass the “Dalilah’s Law,” which would officially ban all non-citizens without full permanent status from obtaining CDLs.
You can track rule updates and enforcement actions on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration site.
“GO.AFTER.THE.TRUCKING.COMPANIES.WHO.EMPLOY.THEM.”
indeed ... esp. since the vast majority of these companies are owned by illegal dot indians ... the BIG USA trucking companies were bankrupted a couple of decades ago and were drovem out of business when all of the illegal truck drivers and illegal trucking companies got going ...
The trucking companies are relying on government to do its job.
Typical liberal thinking, blame the private sector for the malfeasance of government.
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