Illegal trucker cases fuel GOP push to crack down on CDL mills as Dems largely silent

By Fox News · Fox News

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. LAWMAKERS WARNED PENNDOT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT-CDL CRISIS BEFORE BUST; GOP DEMANDS ANSWERS FROM SHAPIRO "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-s…