The Trump administration is threatening Pennsylvania with millions in federal funding after a suspected terrorist truck driver was caught with a commercial license.
Pennsylvania violated federal safety regulations by unlawfully doling out non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) to foreigners, according to a letter submitted by the Department of Transportation (DOT). Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who accused the state of issuing these licenses to ineligible foreign nationals without verifying their legal status, said the DOT would withhold $75 million in federal funding unless Pennsylvania officials take immediate action to fix their CDL program.
The announcement follows the arrest of Akhror Bozorov, a criminal illegal migrant from Uzbekistan accused by his home country of having ties to terrorism. Bozorov — who allegedly distributed terrorist propaganda that called for jihad online and recruited terrorists to join the jihad movement — had obtained a CDL in Pennsylvania before immigration officials nabbed him earlier this month.
“Under President Trump, this Department is taking every measure to ensure dangerous foreign drivers aren’t illegally operating 40-ton vehicles on American roads,” Duffy said in a Thursday statement.
“Joe Biden allowed tens of millions of illegals to pour into our country through open borders, including a suspected terrorist who Pennsylvania then allowed to get behind the wheel of a semitruck,” the DOT secretary continued. “I will continue to fight to get these dangerous drivers off our roads to protect American families and support our national security.”
In a review of the state’s non-domiciled CDL issuance practices, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) found “numerous failures” committed by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, according to Duffy’s letter. Such failures allegedly include the issuance of CDLs with an expiration date beyond the drivers’ authorized stay in the country and a failure to require proof of lawful presence before issuing the CDL.
The DOT is demanding that Pennsylvania take several steps to avoid funding consequences, such as immediately pausing the issuance of new or upgraded CDLs, conducting a comprehensive audit to identify commercial licenses issued in violation of federal regulations and removing all unqualified drivers from the road, among other measures.
“Following the release of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association’s (FMCSA) Interim Final Rule on September 29, 2025, PennDOT immediately paused issuing all non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs),” Alexis Campbell, spokesperson for PennDOT, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “PennDOT fully cooperated with FMCSA’s regularly-scheduled audit – and out of 150 cases the federal government audited, FMSCA did not identify a single commercial driver’s license issued to someone who was not eligible.”
The spokesperson added all applicants must have “proof of identity and must have their legal presence in this country verified through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.”
The Thursday announcement was just the latest action the Trump administration has taken to crack down on foreign commercial drivers in the wake of fatal accidents allegedly caused by illegal migrant truck drivers.
Under emergency rules established by the DOT earlier this year, non-citizens wishing to earn a non-domiciled CDL must undergo mandatory federal immigration status checks and carry an employment-based visa. The tightened requirements — which largely do not apply to lawful permanent residents — were aimed at illegal migrants who managed to obtain CDLs while knowing little to no English, posing serious danger to U.S. roadways.
However, the new regulations have been met with resistance from opponents of the Trump White House. A group of pro-Democrat labor organizations filed a lawsuit in October, and an appeals court earlier this month put the rules on hold as the legal challenge plays out.
The DOT — which already pulled $40 million from California after finding that the state allegedly failed to comply with federal English Language Proficiency standards — is threatening to pull an additional $160 million in federal funds and has accused the state of unlawfully issuing 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs to migrant drivers.
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