The union representing Pennsylvania state troopers is calling for answers after it emerged that the tractor-trailer driver accused of fatally striking Trooper Michael Pahira Jr. last week was in the U.S. illegally and had been granted a commercial driver's license in Massachusetts.
FUNERAL SERVICES SET
● Services for Trooper Michael Pahira Jr. will be held at the North Schuylkill Junior/Senior High School, 15 Academy Lane, Ashland, state police said.
● Visitation is scheduled for Wednesday, July 8, from 8-10 a.m., followed by the funeral service at 11. The visitation and funeral service are open to the public. Burial services will be private.
● There will be heavy traffic volume in the area, including Route 61, with delays expected throughout the day.
Michael Bon, 33, a Haitian national living in Brockton, Mass., faces homicide by vehicle and other charges in connection with the July 1 crash on Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County.
"This individual should never have been driving such a dangerous vehicle on our highways. But he was, and now a good man is dead," Pennsylvania State Troopers Association (PSTA) President Stephen Polishan said in a statement issued Sunday. "Trooper Pahira should be alive today.”
“This is not about politics. This is about right versus wrong. Trooper Pahira was a hero, and his family, fellow troopers and the public deserve answers," Polishan said.
The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles in a statement called Pahira's death "a horrific and terrible tragedy," and said Bon "should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
But Massachusetts officials on Monday also said Bon was legally eligible for the license at the time he applied, as he had not yet been ordered to leave the country, a point confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security.
The case raises larger questions about "non-domiciled" CDLs issued to people who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
It's a practice the Trump administration has been fighting, and the subject of proposed federal legislation. "Dalilah's Law" would ensure all CDL holders in the U.S. understand English and would require states to verify they are not issuing CDLs to illegal immigrants.
"You need to be able to read and write and understand English before you drive an 80,000-pound theoretical missile down our interstate," said U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Luzerne), who supports the proposal.
Investigators in an affidavit said one witness told them Bon "had a difficult time understanding him at the scene."
Pahira, 44, a 20-year veteran of the force, was assigned to PSP's Frackville barracks as a motor carrier inspector. He was struck and killed as he was inspecting a tractor-trailer on the right shoulder of the interstate in Butler Township at about 7 a.m., state police said.
Investigators said Bon was driving a 2019 Freightliner tractor-trailer with Florida license plates that veered off the roadway, striking the side mirror of Pahira's parked Ford F-350 before striking the rear of the tractor-trailer Pahira was inspecting.
Pahira's emergency lights were activated, investigators said, and both vehicles were out of the travel lanes. The stretch of I-81 where the crash took place is straight with no defects, and there were no adverse weather conditions, the affidavit states.
What was Bon's immigration status?
The Department of Homeland Security said Bon "remained in the United States illegally after his humanitarian parole was terminated in June 2025," according to the statement from the troopers association.
DHS confirmed that in response to questions from WVIA News:
● On July 2, 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection admitted Bon into the United States at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as what is called a parolee.
● On Oct. 26, 2024, Bon filed an Application for Temporary Protected Status with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) under the Biden administration. That status was never granted.
*Bon applied for a non-domiciled CDL in March 2025 and was approved in accordance with federal law. See more in next section below.
● On June 13, 2025, USCIS issued Bon a notice of termination of parole.
● Despite his parole being terminated, Bon refused to leave the country and remained in the United States illegally.
● On July 2, ICE lodged an immigration detainer against Bon, the day after he was arrested by Pennsylvania State Police in connection with the fatal I-81 crash.
A photo of the license released by Homeland Security Monday afternoon appeared to show it was issued on June 11, 2025, and expired on July 1, 2026 — the date of the crash. Efforts to reach an RMV spokesperson with follow-up questions about the image were not immediately successful.
When was Bon issued his Massachusetts CDL?
"The non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses program is a federal program. This individual was ruled eligible based on the Trump administration database and allowed to drive by federal law and Trump administration policies," a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) said of Bon.
The U.S. Department of Transportation replied that Massachusetts joined 18 other states opposing federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's new safety rules issued in September 2025.
"Secretary Duffy has spent the last year in office reining in a trucking industry allowed to operate like the Wild West under Biden and [former Secretary Pete] Buttigieg," a DOT spokesperson said.
"That's why the Department issued a final rule stopping unqualified and unvetted foreign drivers from obtaining licenses to drive commercial trucks and buses. States that operate recklessly and fail to enforce our common sense rules will be held accountable."
RMV on Monday provided the following summary about Bon's license history in that state:
● Bon applied for a non-domiciled CDL in March 2025 and was approved in accordance with federal law.
● Bon applied for renewal in February 2026 and was approved in accordance with federal law.
● The RMV relies on the federal SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database to determine whether someone is eligible to work in the United States. When Bon applied for the CDL in 2025 and 2026, he was listed by the federal government as eligible, the agency said.
● On March 16, 2026, the Trump Administration's final rule went into effect, which directs states not to renew or issue new non-domiciled CDLs.
● If and when Bon applied for renewal next year, he would have been rejected in accordance with federal law, an RMV spokesperson said.
A photo of the license released by Homeland Security Monday afternoon appeared to show it was issued on June 11, 2025, and expired on July 1, 2026 — the date of the crash.
Efforts to reach an RMV spokesperson with follow-up questions about the image were not immediately successful.
Seeking a change in the law
William “Lewie” Pugh is among those supporting Dalilah's Law, which would tighten non-domiciled CDL regulations. He is the executive vice-president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, an international trade association representing the interests of independent owner-operators and professional drivers in the U.S. and Canada.
Like Bresnahan, he believes safety is utmost for those who operate such large vehicles.
"Truckers haul everything from toilet paper to bombs and everything in between. So, you've got to know who's behind the wheel, and they've got to be able to talk to people who aren't behind the wheel," Pugh said.
"You don't have to speak the King's English, but you need to be able to read road signs, talk to people — and in unfortunate cases, when there's accidents, talk to first responders," he said.
Pugh feels non-domiciled CDL programs might help larger trucking organizations save money — by hiring drivers who are minimally trained by "CDL mills" that he says churn them out in as little as 24 hours — but have diminished road safety in the process.
"I say we need to start investing in these people and making putting safety as a priority instead of how to cut the rates or make it cheaper," Pugh said.
He said the administration's DOT ruling cracking down on non-domiciled CDLs helps, but he wants to see it made permanent.
"The next administration could come in, and with a stroke of a pen, they could change it all, and it could go right back the way it was," Pugh said. "So that's where we are now trying to get it passed through Congress, so we can codify the law, and the only way it could ever be changed is it would take an act of Congress."
President Donald Trump called for the passage of Dalilah’s Law during his 2026 State of the Union.
Bresnahan, who serves as vice-chairman of the House Transportation Infrastructure Committee, said the measure passed out of that committee by a 35-26 vote in March, but has not yet been taken up for consideration by the full chamber.
"When states like Massachusetts hand out commercial driver's licenses like candy, regardless of one's citizenship status, it puts our officers and our communities at risk, and that's exactly what we saw with this situation," Bresnahan said.
Named for Dalilah Coleman, who was only 5 when she was struck by a man described by federal officials as an illegal alien driving a semi-truck, the law would ensure all CDL holders in the U.S. understand English, would require states to verify they are not issuing commercial driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, and would crack down on the "CDL mills" Pugh described, Bresnahan said.
Bresnahan feels it would make the nation, and this region, safer for all drivers.
"Look at Northeastern Pennsylvania with five major interstates running through our district. Northeastern Pennsylvania sits at the crossroads of our nation's supply chain, which means thousands of trucks are on our road every day," Bresnahan said.
"The bare necessity absolutely needs to be that you can read road signage, you understand speed limits, you understand where there could be potential rollover risks," he said. "Like these are so imperative to each and every motorist on the road, whether you live in Northeastern Pennsylvania or anywhere in the United States."
Pahira's death, he said, was "devastating, and it's something that should have never happened."
