{"id":58373,"date":"2025-12-11T21:44:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58373\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T21:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:44:07","slug":"pa-senate-panel-reviews-cdl-safety-after-claims-of-licenses-issued-to-illegal-immigrants-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/58373\/","title":{"rendered":"Pa. Senate panel reviews CDL safety after claims of licenses issued to illegal immigrants | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harrisburg, Pa. \u2014 The\u00a0Senate Transportation Committee<\/a>, chaired by\u00a0Sen. Judy Ward (R-30)<\/a>, held a public hearing on Tuesday to examine commercial vehicle safety and nondomiciled commercial driver\u2019s licenses (CDLs) following recent claims of CDLs and REAL IDs being issued to illegal immigrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m deeply concerned by the fact that nondomiciled CDLs and REAL IDs were issued to illegal aliens,\u201d said Ward. \u201cThis fact-finding hearing will help us to get to the root cause of this issue and develop policy changes to prevent it from happening in the future. Unlike other states, Pennsylvania has long-standing laws banning driver\u2019s licenses, both regular and commercial, for anyone who is unlawfully present in this commonwealth. If you\u2019re here illegally and falsified documents to receive a Pennsylvania driver\u2019s license, you will be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent under federal and state laws.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Last month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Akhror Bozorov, 31, an illegal immigrant from Uzbekistan wanted for belonging to a terrorist organization. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) issued him a CDL with a REAL ID indication in July.<\/p>\n

The hearing included testimony from driving advocates, along with officials from PennDOT and the Pennsylvania State Police.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u00a0Secretary of Transportation\u00a0Mike Carroll emphasized during the hearing that\u00a0Bozorov was approved by the Department of Homeland Security to receive a CDL, and that he was approved by the SAVE system \u2014\u00a0an online service for government agencies to verify immigration status and U.S. citizenship of applicants seeking benefits or licenses \u2014 before and after his licensing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When the news of this all broke, we ran him through the SAVE system again,<\/p>\n

and the SAVE system continued to highlight his ability to receive A CDL. So, not only did we check with the Department of Homeland Security in July, we rechecked when the story broke as a result of the stop in Kansas. And interestingly, he was still greenlit to receive a CDL despite his interface with the ICE folks,” Carrol presented to the committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That says that these agencies are not talking, they are not communicating,” Senator Ward responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciated the opportunity to participate in today\u2019s constructive conversation about the risks posed by unqualified CDL drivers on our roads,\u201d said Rebecca Oyler, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association. \u201cThis hearing allowed us to walk through the real challenges the industry is facing and to discuss achievable ways to close gaps in CDL licensing and education at both the state and federal levels. PMTA is grateful for the seriousness and deliberation the committee is bringing to this issue \u2014 not simply reacting to headlines but taking a measured approach to strengthening safety for everyone who travels Pennsylvania\u2019s highways.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harrisburg, Pa. \u2014 The\u00a0Senate Transportation Committee, chaired by\u00a0Sen. Judy Ward (R-30), held a public hearing on Tuesday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23068,23086,23070,31952,2443,21251,741,31955,15798,5629,28,7874,30,31953,29,1224,50,31954,18384,24404],"class_list":["post-58373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-akhror-bozorov","tag-cdl","tag-department-of-homeland-security","tag-driving-licences","tag-ice","tag-illegal-immigration","tag-immigration","tag-judy-ward","tag-mike-carroll","tag-northcentralpa-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-department-of-transportation","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-motor-truck-association","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-state-police","tag-politics","tag-rebecca-oyler","tag-secretary-of-transportation","tag-senate-transportation-committee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}