Illegal trucker cases fuel GOP push to crack down on CDL mills as Dems largely silent
Republicans in Pennsylvania are pressuring Democrats to act on a legislative crackdown targeting illegal immigrant truckers on America’s highways.
Several foreign nationals involved in dangerous incidents around the country were found to be holding commercial driver's licenses from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, leading to tensions between Harrisburg and Homeland Security. Republicans have called on state Democrats to address the issue, arguing such discrepancies do not appear to occur at the same level in other states.
Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, previously alleged DHS failed to properly maintain its "alien verification" (SAVE) database, which PennDOT said it uses to verify an applicant’s "lawful presence," while a top Republican recently demanded answers from PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll after illegal immigrants with CDLs were apprehended as far away as Oklahoma.
On Wednesday, Shapiro’s camp did not dismiss Republican-led bills aimed at addressing the issue, including efforts to shut down so-called "CDL mills," which allegedly produce unqualified truckers and generate significant profits. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Biden administration adjusted rules to allow trucking schools to self-certify, creating a dynamic he compared to the Minnesota-Somali social-services fraud scandal and called "total bull---" at a recent conference.
"Highway safety is a cornerstone of our mission at PennDOT and the Shapiro administration remains unwavering in our work to make sure Pennsylvania's roads are safe," Shapiro spokeswoman Rosie Lapowsky said when presented with the bills newly passed out of Senate committee and considered favorable to the GOP-majority upper chamber.
Harrisburg has faced divided government for some time, as the House is 102-99 Democratic, with two Republican-favored seats vacant that would normally create a one-seat margin, while the Senate holds a 27-23 GOP majority.
Lapowsky pointed to the SAVE database and said PennDOT continues to issue CDLs to drivers verified by that and otherwise in accordance with applicable state and federal law.
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"The fact remains that every person who applies for a non-domiciled commercial driver’s license issued by PennDOT must provide proof of identity and proof of their lawful presence in the United States," she said.
"We will monitor the bills as they go through the legislative process."
However, Shapiro’s allies in the State House were mum on the subject.
When reached for comment, a representative for House Speaker Joanna McClinton, D-Southwest Philadelphia, said the lawmaker was unavailable due to a floor session and could not review Fox News Digital’s inquiry by next week.
House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, D-Schwenksville, House Majority Whip Mike Schlossberg, D-Allentown, and House Transportation Committee Chairman Ed Neilson, R-Northeast Philadelphia, did not respond by publication time.
While the top Republican on the Senate Transportation Committee that approved the bills — Sen. Judy Ward of Hollidaysburg — could not immediately be reached, other Republicans touted the plans as "commonsense reforms" needed to secure America’s highways.
"Cracking down on CDL mills and requiring English language proficiency for truck drivers are easy ways for Pennsylvania to make the roads a little safer," Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee chairman Jarrett Coleman, R-Allentown, told Fox News Digital.
Coleman previously led the charge against illegal immigrant truckers receiving CDLs in Pennsylvania after an Uzbek national residing in Philadelphia was nabbed in Kansas earlier this year.
In that case, Ahkror Bozorov was also found to be wanted back home in Tashkent on suspicion of ties to terrorist groups, according to DHS.
Coleman also highlighted a Senate fact-finding hearing involving Carroll and several trucking interests following another incident in which a Kyrgyz national with a PennDOT CDL caused a crash that killed a person in Indiana.
"I can’t imagine how anyone could be opposed to these types of changes, and quite frankly they’re overdue," said Coleman, a former commercial pilot and ex-member of the Parkland School Board.
The first of the bills, SB 1294, seeks to crack down on so-called CDL mills that produce undertrained truck driver candidates who pay for their services.
Ward, whose family owns the regionally prominent Ward Trucking firm out of Altoona, was listed as the lead sponsor of all three pieces of the package, accompanied by several colleagues as co-sponsors, including Sens. Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington, Wayne Langerholc, R-Johnstown, and Lisa Baker, R-Dallas.
The first piece officially creates a CDL school licensing board and enforces $25,000 penalties on people who provide entry-level driver training without being certified.
The second bill in the package would require English to be the primary language spoken or understood in testing applications in order to operate commercial vehicles in excess of 40 tons on Pennsylvania highways.
The third bill, SB 1296, establishes new penalties for out-of-service violations issued to unsafe CDL drivers, including operating a heavy commercial vehicle on public highways without English comprehension.
A Pennsylvania Democratic source familiar with the topic also pointed Fox News Digital to a recent hearing before Ward’s committee, where Deputy Secretary of Education Lynnette Kuhn testified about commercial vehicle safety policies under the Shapiro administration.
Kuhn pointed out that the federal government lists 1,273 Pennsylvania-based CDL training firms, but only 40 are registered with Harrisburg.
"Registration is a self-certifying process, and an applicant only needs to check a box attesting that they have met all applicable state requirements," Kuhn said. "Additionally, FMCSA (a USDOT sub-agency focused on trucking) registration does not require a physical or mailing address, phone number, email address, website, business information, or an individual’s personal information, making it extremely difficult to locate a provider based on the registry."
"As a result, unlicensed training providers can appear legitimate to consumers, employers, and state regulatory agencies."
With the package likely to be approved by the full Senate soon, the fight will shift to McClinton’s chamber, where just a few Democratic defections on a nationally spotlighted issue could seal the deal.