Federal officials announced Wednesday that the suspect accused of causing a massive fatal pileup in Tennessee last week was an illegal immigrant who obtained a commercial driver’s license (CDL) in the “sanctuary state” of New York.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) said the suspect, 54-year-old Yisong Huang, illegally entered the country from Mexico in 2023. Officials added that Huang, who reportedly could not speak English, was released under the Biden administration and provided work authorization papers.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has previously warned that illegal immigrants are obtaining commercial driver’s licenses (CDL), said this incident represents yet another example.

“It’s not just that Joe Biden let millions of migrants flood into our country illegally,” Duffy said in a statement Wednesday. “His administration doled out the documentation these unqualified foreign drivers needed to obtain trucking licenses and operate 40-ton missiles on the highway. The fact that this individual failed a basic English test also calls into question how he even got the license in the first place.”

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CAUGHT DRIVING COMMERCIAL TRUCK WITH VALID NEW YORK CDL AT CALIFORNIA CHECKPOINT

Investigators reported that, on Dec. 9, Huang was driving an empty bus on a major highway when he became “distracted by a video on his phone.” 

The New York Post reported Huang was operating a tour bus. He allegedly rear-ended a tractor-trailer and triggered a chain-reaction crash that led to two injuries and the death of one American citizen, Kerry Smith, according to officials. 

Huang was later arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.  

Huang entered the U.S. illegally two years ago, according to the DHS. Officials said he admitted to Border Patrol agents that he was a Chinese national but was later released and given work authorization papers and a Social Security card. This allowed Huang to get a Class B CDL, a process that ultimately led to the deadly multi-vehicle crash, the agency alleges.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCK DRIVER IN FATAL CALIFORNIA CRASH SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAD LICENSE: DOT REPORT  

The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles told Fox News Digital Wednesday that Huang’s license was issued on April 11, 2025, and that he presented all the proper federal documents to obtain one. His papers established a “lawful presence” until July 15, 2029, the agency said. 

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on Tuesday, “Far too many innocent Americans have been killed by illegal aliens driving semitrucks and big rigs. And yet, sanctuary states around the country have been issuing illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses. The Trump Administration is ending the chaos. The brave men and women of ICE are working nonstop to get criminal illegal aliens out of our communities and off our roads.”

Duffy announced Friday that a nationwide audit found more than 50% of New York’s non-domiciled trucking licenses — commercial licenses issued to non-legal residents of the state — were issued illegally.

According to Duffy, the state DMV “has been routinely issuing CDLs to foreign drivers illegally. The federal audit exposed a shocking 53% failure rate in the records sampled, indicating a total collapse in the administration of New York’s CDL program.”

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In response, New York State DMV spokesperson Walter McClure said Friday, “Secretary Duffy is lying about New York State once again in a desperate attempt to distract from the failing, chaotic administration he represents. 

“Here is the truth: Commercial drivers Licenses are regulated by the Federal Government, and New York State DMV has, and will continue to, comply with federal rules.  Every CDL we issue is subject to verification of an applicant’s lawful status through federally-issued documents reviewed in accordance with federal regulations. This is just another stunt from Secretary Duffy, and it does nothing to keep our roads safer. We will review USDOT’s letter and respond accordingly.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Tennessee DOT for more information.

This is also an economic issue. Toxic blooms from stormwater runoff recently threatened the Head of the Charles Regatta, and such conditions will imperil other landmark events and economic development if the MWRA compounds the runoff issue by maintaining its current course on CSOs.

We’ve been here before: When Conservation Law Foundation brought its lawsuit to force the cleanup of Boston Harbor, some members of the media called it a waste of billions of dollars. That faulty notion is reprised in the editorial. Yet today the harbor’s revival proves that clean water investments yield extraordinary returns to our economy, such as a value of ecosystem services estimated between $30 billion and $100 billion.

This is also a matter of the rule of law. MWRA deserves credit for magnificent achievements in cleaning up the harbor over decades. From my experience having enforced the federal Clean Water Act throughout those same decades, I would argue that MWRA’s current approach to CSOs violates both the letter and spirit of the law.

Brad Campbell

President and CEO

Conservation Law Foundation

Boston

The writer is former regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic region and former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Your recent editorial on the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s updated CSO control plan resonated because it recognized what’s driving so much of the public’s emotion: a sincere, shared hope for cleaner, healthier rivers. Those of us who work in water and wastewater feel that same pull. Combined sewer overflows should continue to decline, and this plan was always meant to evolve. The goal — for advocates, MWRA, and our communities — is the same: real improvements in water quality.

The challenge, as your editorial noted, is that progress now requires confronting difficult tradeoffs. After 40 years of major gains, the remaining decisions are more complex — and far more costly. MWRA was created to lead the region’s environmental turnaround, and the MWRA Advisory Board was established alongside it to ensure that those decisions kept affordability in mind — not to block investment but rather to make sure families and communities could sustain it.

When tradeoffs fall directly on households, people deserve clarity about what each dollar accomplishes. MWRA is funded entirely by its communities, which means every dollar becomes a higher sewer bill for the residents who cherish these rivers.

Massachusetts has some of the most engaged, informed residents anywhere. Let’s give them the full story in the formal comment process and trust them to help shape the path forward.

Matthew A. Romero

Executive director

MWRA Advisory Board

Chelsea

The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not represent those of the full advisory board.

The editorial “The MWRA’s tricky balancing act” regurgitates MWRA’s misleading argument for dumping sewage in the Charles River while it misses the heart of the public’s concerns. The agency’s proposal to reclassify the river is no meaningless thing; it’s a permanent concession to have sewage discharged into the Charles forever. The proposal would not only remove any accountability for MWRA to end its discharges. It would actually increase the amount of sewage entering the river in the future as storms worsen. It would be a drastic step backward for a mainstay of Greater Boston that’s taken us decades to bring back to life.

There was no misunderstanding about MWRA, Cambridge, and Somerville’s proposal that has to be “explained” to its critics. The authority faced justified alarm from outraged residents legitimately questioning why we would abandon past cleanup efforts and increase sewage discharges to the river.

The editorial paints solutions as impossible and unrealistic. But the Boston Harbor cleanup — also dismissed as too hard at the time — is now one of metro Boston’s greatest economic wins. Clean water is an investment that pays off.

A sewage-free river is not a pipe dream. It’s what we deserve and what MWRA must deliver.

Emily Norton

Executive director

Charles River Watershed Association

Boston

The proposals on the table from MWRA, Cambridge, and Somerville addressing combined sewer overflows would not get us closer to a swimmable or boatable Charles or Mystic River.

For instance, the proposal does not promise to “eliminate CSOs in the Alewife Brook entirely,” as your editorial claims. It predicts only that there would be no CSOs in a “typical” year of rainfall. So the current proposal essentially guarantees continued releases of CSOs in the Alewife Brook, the Mystic, and the Charles, and probably at an even greater level than now.

As environmental advocates, we understand that costs must be weighed against benefits. But the current proposals provide minimal (and yet to be known) benefits, far less than the editorial asserts.

Massachusetts residents deserve more information and a transparent public process where they can weigh in on whether the costs are worth the benefits for treasured public resources.

The headline that appeared over your editorial online asks: “Is making the Charles swimmable worth the cost?”

For our part, the question is: Is freeing our rivers from sewage worth the cost? Our answer remains a resounding yes.

Patrick Herron

Executive director

Mystic River Watershed Association

Arlington