Trooper Michael Pahira Jr. was killed on the shoulder of I-81 by an illegal alien who never should have had a commercial drivers license.
Now the men who keep America's freight moving are done waiting for someone to do something about it.
They sent Tom Homan one demand this week and the answer was already waiting for them.
How a Haitian Illegal Alien With a Massachusetts CDL Killed a Pennsylvania State Trooper
Michael Bon arrived through Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in July 2024 – a Haitian national flown into the country under the Biden administration's humanitarian parole program.
He applied for Temporary Protected Status but the application was denied.
DHS terminated his parole in June 2025 and ordered him out of the country.
But he didn't leave.
Bon had obtained a commercial driver's license from Massachusetts in March 2025, while he was still authorized to work – and when his status was revoked and a deportation order issued, Massachusetts renewed the license anyway in February 2026, one month before the Trump administration's rule barring such renewals took effect.
Trooper Michael E. Pahira Jr. was a 20-year veteran of the Pennsylvania State Police, a motor carrier inspector assigned to the Frackville barracks – the kind of trooper who spent his career keeping big rigs honest on Northeastern Pennsylvania's interstates.
He had recently moved back to be near his mother while she fought cancer.
On July 1, at 7 a.m., Pahira stood on the right shoulder of I-81 in Schuylkill County, emergency lights flashing, conducting a routine commercial vehicle inspection.
The stretch of highway behind him was straight and clear.
Bon's Freightliner tractor-trailer veered off the road anyway, shearing the mirror off Pahira's patrol truck before slamming into the rear of the vehicle under inspection.
Both trucks erupted in flames.
Construction workers nearby dragged Pahira out from beneath the burning cab.
He never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead hours later.
DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis named the cause: "This Haitian illegal alien was RELEASED into our country by the Biden Administration, and the sanctuary state of Massachusetts gave him a Commercial Driver's License. Now, because of these reckless policies, a Pennsylvania State Trooper is dead after a crash that was 100% preventable."
ICE Agents Hit Truck Weigh Stations Nationwide as Blue States Block CDL Records
American Truckers United posted an open letter on social media this week that asked the Trump administration to deploy ICE and Border Patrol agents at truck stops.
Tom Homan didn’t waste any time getting to work.
Appearing on Fox News, the border czar confirmed that ICE agents are now embedded with state troopers at commercial truck weigh stations from coast to coast.
"We've got a lot of people we're looking for," Homan told Dana Perino. "Actually, some states we're actually working weigh stations with the troopers, trying to get these people as they're coming through."
More than 28,000 illegally issued non-domicile CDLs have already been revoked nationwide.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declared an emergency action tightening CDL eligibility for non-citizens – requiring employment-based visas and a mandatory federal immigration status check through the SAVE system before any license is issued.
When California's audit came back showing more than 25% of its non-domicile CDLs were improperly issued, Duffy put the state on a 30-day deadline: comply or lose nearly $160 million in federal highway funding.
Illinois got the same ultimatum after nearly 1-in-5 of its licenses turned out to be illegally issued – $128 million on the table.
Homan called out blue state obstruction by name.
"The problem is, we're working very well with red states," Homan said. "Blue states are still a struggle. Places like New York – ICE and CBP can't even get access to the DMV database."
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, pressed on why her state handed commercial truck licenses to illegal aliens, called it a "matter of public safety" – because, she argued, "people are going to drive, with or without a license."
Homan answered in five words: "She is normalizing illegal immigration."
Attorney General Todd Blanche is now suing jurisdictions that refuse to share driver information with federal enforcement.
28000 Illegal CDLs Revoked as Dalilah Law Moves Toward a Vote
Biden flew Bon into the country, Massachusetts handed him a CDL and then renewed it after his deportation order, and not a single weigh station in America ever checked his papers.
Trooper Michael Pahira, who gave his career to keeping Pennsylvania highways safe and moved home to sit with his cancer-stricken mother, paid for all of it with his life.
Trump called for the Dalilah Law by name from the podium – named for five-year-old Dalilah Coleman, critically injured when an illegal alien truck driver slammed into her family's car in California.
Senator Jim Banks of Indiana introduced the bill the next day.
It would bar every state from issuing CDLs to illegal aliens and revoke every one already in circulation.
Blue states built a system that gets American law enforcement officers killed on the side of the road.
Trump and Homan are tearing it apart weigh station by weigh station.
Sources:
- Fox News, "Illegal immigrant truck driver charged in death of trooper who moved home to care for mom with cancer," July 5, 2026.
- Washington Examiner, "ICE sent to truck weigh stations to arrest illegal immigrant truck drivers," July 8, 2026.
- FreightWaves, "Federal agents targeting illegal truck drivers at weigh stations nationwide," July 8, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Transportation, "Trump's Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Takes Emergency Action to Protect America's Roads, Restrict Non-Domiciled CDLs."
- Breitbart, "Duffy Marks One Year of Trump's Trucking Crackdown: 20,000 Unsafe Drivers Pulled Off the Road, 28,000 Illegal CDLs Revoked," May 1, 2026.
- Fox News, "ICE Arrests 100+ Illegal Alien Truck Drivers in California Operation," December 23, 2025.