Duffy Threatens to Withhold Millions From PA After Terror Suspect Received CDL
Federal agency may also decertify Pennsylvania’s CDL program.
The Trump administration continues to work hard to reverse the impact of the Biden Border Disaster.
My colleague Mary Chastain recently reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has captured Uzbeki terror suspect Akhor Bozorov, who was freed under the Biden administration, who had obtained a commercial driver’s license (CDL) in Pennsylvania.
There are so many examples of why a truck in the hands of a jihadi terrorist is shocking. To begin with, in 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was destroyed by a truck loaded with ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. While this was an act of domestic terrorism, it resulted in 168 deaths and hundreds of injuries, and is a clear example of the capacity for destruction that can be wrought with enough planning and access to a big rig.
Of course, in 1993, Muslim terrorists drove a yellow Ryder rental van containing approximately 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of urea nitrate-based explosives into the underground public parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. This resulted in the deaths of 6, over 1,000 injured, and inspired the planning that resulted in the attack on September 11, 2001.
The Biden Border Disaster has led to conditions that threaten the safety and security of all Americans, just not those in red or blue states. So, the Trump administration is coming down hard on the lapses in law application and regulatory enforcement that have allowed terror suspects to be free to drive big rigs around this country.
California has been threatened with fines for its ineptitude in issuing CDLs. Now, Pennsylvania is in the hot seat.
The Trump administration threatened Thursday to withhold nearly $75 million in funding if Pennsylvania does not immediately revoke what the administration claims are illegally issued commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants.
…Duffy has made it a priority to scrutinize how the licenses are issued since August, when a tractor-trailer driver not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. That incident thrust the issue into the public’s consciousness.
In a statement Thursday, DOT spokesperson Danna Almeida said all states were being reviewed.
Now, in the CBS article I cited (and in several others I reviewed), the media highlights in the early paragraphs that the Bad Orange Man is simply picking on Democratic governors who would be excellent presidential candidates.
The move by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to target Pennsylvania follows similar action against California. Both states are run by Democratic governors who have criticized President Donald Trump’s administration and who are viewed as potential top-shelf contenders to be the party’s 2028 presidential nominee.
However, this media narrative doesn’t survive a basic fact check. South Dakota and Texas have both faced enforcement actions from the US DOT regarding the issuance of CDLs to non-citizens or non-domiciled individuals. Both states were identified in a federal audit as having issued CDLs that did not meet federal eligibility and documentation requirements, prompting corrective actions and threats of losing federal funding.
Clearly, the Trump administration has been even-handed in its approach to this issue. It’s just that the level of whining and hysteria is louder from the blue states and the media entities that prop up the anti-Trump narratives.
Returning to the subject of Pennsylvania, it is also worth noting that its CDL program is poised to be decertified.
In a letter sent to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Secretary Michael Carroll on Wednesday, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief Derek Barrs wrote that a recent audit of the state’s CDL program uncovered eight non-domiciled CDLs issued by Pennsylvania that failed to comply with federal regulations.
“This is an unacceptable deviation from FMCSA’s regulations when issuing credentials to operate commercial motor vehicles,” Barrs stated in the letter.
…[I]f FMCSA issues a final determination of substantial noncompliance, the agency may decertify Pennsylvania’s CDL program,” Barrs asserted.
“Decertification … would prohibit the state from issuing, renewing, transferring, or upgrading CLPs and CDLs until such time as FMCSA determines that PennDOT is in substantial compliance” with federal regulations, he noted. Barrs gave the state 30 days to respond.
As I have noted before, it is going to be interesting to look at changes in various quality-of-life statistics next year, after we have had 365 days plus of robust border enforcement and law enforcement.
ICE and our 287(g) partner @OHPDPS arrested 70 illegal aliens from 15 countries in a two-day operation to make the state’s highways safer.
Arrests included 36 criminal aliens and 34 who violated state law by operating a semi-truck or commercial vehicle while in the U.S.… pic.twitter.com/cI9kzsiafA
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) November 9, 2025
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Comments
Now that we have foolishly given CDLs to so many people who will willingly die to murder millions of us, I wonder if/when a truck (wouldn’t have to be an 18 wheeler) carrying a nuclear device will be driven into the heart of a major city and its cargo detonated there. If that happens, and I pray it never does, may God help us all. This talk about seditious former and retired military members will sound like the good old days.
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The lack of the proper license will no more stop a terror-bomb truck driver from doing something nasty than “no guns allowed in store” stops armed robbery.
This. I mean, we shouldn’t be issuing licenses to terrorists, but not having one isn’t going to stop anything. There are literally thousands of people driving in Pennsylvania with either no license, a suspended license, or a revoked license. The penalties for doing so are actually pretty stiff. But Philadelphia and Pittsburgh don’t really enforce them.
This is like watching Austin Powers in real time. Seventy-five million dollars? Seriously? Do you think the Democrat state of Pennsylvania is going to care about that? It’s peanuts, and besides, it all other people’s money anyway. If the Democrats in DC didn’t mind putting the screws to people nationwide for two months, the Dems in PA aren’t going to shed a tear. They’ll squeeze that seventy-five million out of any lemons they can get their claws on.
Oh don’t worry. Even if the Trump Administration withholds the $75 million Pennsylvania officials will just file a lawsuit in federal district court and the liberal democrat activist judge will immediately issue an injunction preventing the Trump Administration from withholding the funds and a court order that they immediately hand the money over to Pennsylvania state officials. Guaranteed.
Illegals getting DMV or CDL licenses in various states need the FBI to investigate. Specifically the FBI needs to find out who in the DMV office issued the license and arrest them, and then work their way up the chain to find out if this is allowed by higher ups, arrest them, if in state law, arrest the people that passed the law.
take it to the top and start criminally prosecuting governors under 18 USC s1342 if one can stretch the definition of ‘harboring’ to include illegally providing licensure to obtain employment
The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building truck is a bad example. That was a U-haul type rental truck that anybody with a driver license and a credit card can rent.
I am still trying to understand how the illegal got a CDL. Many people fail the driving test for the CDL It is not an easy test.
DEI.
You know — the system where being incompetent actually awards you extra credit.
Outsourcing the training and testing to commercial entities who had incentives to ‘push the numbers’ to successfully graduate and receive a CDL.
Supposedly something like 200K CDL held by folks who ain’t Citizens nor green card holders, at least that’s the common number I’ve seen in other articles on the topic.
My suggestion would be requiring immediate, full cooperation from each State to identify any potential or actual shady CDL. At the first hint of any effort to be less than 100% open, transparent and fully accommodating cancel the privilege of that State to issue CDL and revoke their current issued CDL requiring recertification by Federal DoT in person. Any iota of resistance to this step by that State and the Feds should cancel use of DL/ID issued by that State for entry to Federal Facilities to include TSA clearance at airports, Federal Court buildings, military installations, Congressional buildings. Residents of that State can still use a valid Military ID, A Passport or other Federally compliant/accepted ID.
Duffy didn’t get the memo? He has no authority to make any decisions of consequence. The left wing judges are in charge of everything in this country that matters, end of story
What they should do, and what they should have done immediately is decertify these States from being able to issue cdls.
Other States can always refuse to honor the CDL issued by States like CA and PA with suspect/shady adherence to established testing/approval process. That would at least limit/mitigate the potential damage/danger posed by these drivers to the confines of the issuing State. Sure they could risk it and drive across State limes anyway but when State Troopers pull them over and seize the cargo the shipping companies hiring these drivers gonna get the message real quick to stop doing it.
I am afraid that such an effort will get hung up in court by Section 1 of Article IV of the Constitution. What we would need would be a Federal law requiring recertification of all Commercial Drivers Licenses with mandatory proof of identity and legal residence in this country. Which the Democrats would block.
Subotai Bahadur
If a State can squelch 2A rights by refusing to offer ‘full faith and credit’ to CCW they can certainly do so for the privilege, not a right, to operate a commercial vehicle. See all sorts of State based professional licensing requirements that most definitely don’t automatically grant reciprocity to practitioners from out of State with an out of State license, everything from Barbers and dog groomers to Physicians.