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.
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