Lawmakers Question How Man Wanted for Terrorism Had PA CDL
Last month in California, an illegal immigrant driving a truck was charged in the deaths of three people after a fiery crash. Another illegal immigrant driving a tractor-trailer is accused of causing a crash that killed three people in Florida in August.
Now the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 31-year-old Akhror Bozorov, an illegal alien from Uzbekistan. Authorities in his home country are seeking him on charges that he belongs to a terrorist organization. Uzbekistan authorities issued an arrest warrant for Bozorov in 2022, accusing him of distributing online terrorist propaganda calling for jihad and recruiting terrorists to join the jihad movement, officials said.
Agents arrested Bozorov in Kansas on November 9, while he was working as a commercial truck driver. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) under Gov. Josh Shapiro issued him a commercial driver's license (CDL), DHS officials said in a press release. The Biden administration permitted Bozorov to work in the U.S. in January 2024.
PennDOT Press Secretary Alexis Campbell issued this statement: “Pennsylvania issues both commercial and non-commercial driver’s licenses only to non-U.S. citizens who can provide documentation proving their lawful presence in the United States. When non-citizen applicants appear at a Driver License Center in Pennsylvania, PennDOT reviews immigration and naturalization documents, which are confirmed in real-time against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) website before issuing any driver’s license.
“PennDOT is prohibited from publicly disclosing information about an individual’s driver record due to state and federal privacy laws,” she added.
Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, a Republican who is running against Shapiro for governor in 2026, linked Shapiro to former President Biden.
“Every state is a border state,” said Garrity. “When Josh Shapiro’s failures align with Joe Biden’s, Pennsylvanians are put at risk.”
Some Pennsylvania legislators are troubled.
"This news, on its face, is deeply concerning. If these facts prove true, it is entirely unacceptable,” said House minority Leader Jesse Topper (R-78). No illegal alien should be granted a driver's license. Period. We are seeking answers from the Shapiro administration and working on next steps to ensure this never happens again."
Topper called the Bozorov case “deeply concerning.”
“If these facts prove true, it is entirely unacceptable,” said Topper. “No illegal alien should be granted a driver's license. Period. We are seeking answers from the Shapiro administration and working on next steps to ensure this never happens again."
On Tuesday, the leaders of the Pennsylvania House Republican Caucus sent a letter to Attorney General Dave Sunday and Auditor General Tim DeFoor demanding an investigation of Pennsylvania’s driver’s license, REAL ID, and voter registration systems to find out how Bozorov obtained a CDL and to prevent similar cases from happening.
Four Republican state senators – Jarrett C. Coleman (R-16), chairman of the Intergovernmental Operations Committee, Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-28), Dawn Keefer (R-31), and Doug Mastrianon (R-33) – sent Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll a letter on undocumented immigrants receiving commercial driver's licenses on November 7.
The letter noted that an Oklahoma Highway Patrol investigation found Pennsylvania had given 12 illegal immigrants CDLs, saying, “The integrity of our licensing system is critical to public safety, national security, and public trust,” and asking Carroll to explain how this happened.
Coleman told RealClearPennsylvania that Carroll did not respond to their letter.
“The Secretary of Transportation’s silence on this issue speaks volumes,” said Coleman. “The people of Pennsylvania deserve transparency and accountability, not evasiveness and excuses. If the administration can’t or won’t explain how this happened, then we have a much bigger problem on our hands. Public safety is not negotiable, and I will continue pressing for answers until we get them.”
Bozorov illegally entered the United States in February 2023, DHS officials said. Under Biden’s policies, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested him at that time but then released him.
“Not only was Akhror Bozorov – a wanted terrorist – released into the country by the Biden administration, but he was he was also given a commercial driver’s license by Governor Shapiro’s Pennsylvania. This should go without saying, but terrorist illegal aliens should not be operating 18-wheelers on America’s highways,” said Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Biden and (former DHS Secretary Alejandro) Mayorkas allowed countless terrorists to come into our country. President Trump and Secretary Noem unleashed ICE to target these national security threats.”
