Politics
Lawmakers warned PennDOT of illegal immigrant-CDL crisis before bust; GOP demands answers from Shapiro
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
EXCLUSIVE: Pennsylvania lawmakers warned Harrisburg officials of a potential crisis on their hands before Monday’s arrest of an Uzbek illegal immigrant trucker in Kansas who held a PennDOT commercial driver’s license (CDL).
Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee chairman Jarrett Coleman shared a letter with Fox News Digital that he sent just days earlier to PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll asking for answers to how illegal immigrants were receiving CDL licenses despite stated rigorous identity checks.
Coleman, R-Allentown, said Monday’s incident was “deeply disturbing but not surprising” and another example of the Shapiro administration “prioritiz[ing] political optics over public safety.”
He said that Pennsylvanians deserve accountability in situations like this and that if the administration will not provide public answers, then there is a “much bigger problem on our hands.”
TRUCKERS WARN OF ‘FOREIGN INVASION’ AS DHS CRACKS DOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT DRIVERS
Trucks move through a major construction zone on US-22/I-78 in Greenwich Township, Berks County, Pa. (Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
“Public safety is not negotiable,” he said. “Ten days ago, I and several colleagues formally requested answers from PennDOT about what safeguards they have in place to prevent individuals who are in this country illegally, and in some cases have criminal records, from obtaining CDLs.”
ICE ARRESTS ILLEGAL-IMMIGRANT TRUCKER FROM UZBEKISTAN OVER ALLEGED TERROR TIES
The letter had been prompted by reports that a dozen illegal immigrants netted in an October bust of about 80 noncitizen truckers in Oklahoma were issued their licenses by Harrisburg.
“Governor Shapiro is quick to jump in front of cameras and tout his leadership, but when it comes to answering basic questions about how his administration is protecting Pennsylvania drivers, we get silence,” Coleman said.
“This isn’t just bureaucratic delay. It’s stonewalling. And it’s dangerous.”
Coleman led the letter, which was cosigned by Sens. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-Dallastown, and Dawn Keefer, R-Dillsburg.
EXPERT REVEALS HOW ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER MAY HAVE GOTTEN COMMERCIAL LICENSE BEFORE FATAL FLORIDA CRASH
Pennsylvania State Sen. Jarrett Coleman’s official portrait. (PA State Senate/Office of Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Allentown.)
It requested Carroll provide more than a dozen datapoints, including whether PennDOT has even reviewed the files of the CDL holders arrested by ICE since October, and whether those drivers were properly verified at the time of issuance.
Carroll was also asked whether PennDOT is using required federal “systematic alien verification for entitlements” to verify immigration status, and whether it was complying with a directive from USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy to halt all issuances of “non-domiciled CDLs.”
BLUE STATE IN THE HOT SEAT AFTER ICE BUSTS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WITH ‘NO NAME GIVEN’ ON LICENSE
Since the letter was sent, a federal judge rebuked Duffy and overturned his suspension of license issuance.
Coleman also asked Carroll about any internal audits, oversight mechanism, corrective action plan, or assessments of public safety risks from their current modus operandi.
A spokeswoman for Carroll confirmed PennDOT received Coleman’s letter and is in the process of responding.
She assured that whenever “non-citizen applicants apply for a CDL in Pennsylvania, PennDOT follows applicable federal and state processes, reviewing the necessary immigration and naturalization documents and confirming the non-citizen’s legal status in real-time using [DHS’] SAVE database before issuing a license — if the applicant clears the SAVE process, which confirms the applicant is residing in the U.S. under legal status, and successfully meets all other criteria, a license is issued.
“PennDOT completes these two checks to confirm legal status with the federal government every time it issues a license to a non-citizen,” the spokeswoman said.
BLUE STATE INVESTIGATES HOW ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER GOT LICENSE BEFORE DEADLY FLORIDA CRASH
Carroll, a former state lawmaker from former President Joe Biden’s home county of Lackawanna, said he has the “greatest level of faith in our driver’s license and motor vehicle folks” when it comes to properly verifying “substantial documentation” required for REAL IDs and licenses.
Later Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Republican Party issued its own demand for Shapiro to speak out on the growing issue.
PAGOP Chairman Greg Rothman, a state senator from Cumberland County, called it “not just a policy failure [but] a national security breach right here in Pennsylvania.
“How in the world did someone with terrorist ties pass every check to get behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler in our state?”
Rothman said the Uzbek national, Akhror Bozorov, also obtained REAL ID verification from PennDOT.
“The people who signed off on this need to be found, fired, and Governor Shapiro must answer for this.”
In that regard, Shapiro’s office hit back at critics and suggested they instead question the Trump administration about the situation.
“If officials are concerned about this, they should redirect their attention to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who manages the federal database that is checked before any Pennsylvania licenses are issued to non-citizens,” said Rosie Lapowsky, a spokeswoman for Shapiro.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll, right. (VALERIE MYERS/ERIE TIMES-NEWS / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
“The PAGOP is formally requesting that federal and state oversight authorities launch a full investigation into the decision-making process that allowed Bozorov to receive a CDL,” the PAGOP added in a statement.
Bozorov’s license—an image of which was obtained by Fox News Digital—listed a ZIP code corresponding to Philadelphia’s Somerton neighborhood, a suburban-style area in the city’s northeast once home to figures like MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and, more recently, an increasing number of Russian and Arabic residents.
In response to Bozorov’s initial arrest, PennDOT spokeswoman Alexis Campbell told Fox News Digital that “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.”
Politics
Trump-backed Board of Peace, Israel ‘will take action’ if Hamas remains out of compliance: Netanyahu advisor
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Michael Eisenberg, a top advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says Israel and the newly-created Board of Peace will “take action” against Hamas if it does not comply with the peace terms it agreed to.
Eisenberg made the comments during an interview with Fox News on Sunday. He said Hamas is currently out of compliance with a wider peace agreement and is refusing to give up its weapons to “demilitarize” Gaza.
“I think all the options are on the table since Hamas is noncompliant with the 20-point plan, and they haven’t delivered their weapons like they were supposed to. And so we’ll have to wait and see. But like I said, this is incredibly well thought out. Give President Trump a tremendous amount of credit and his team of people credit. They’ve literally thought through every stage of this from beginning to end,” Eisenberg said.
“And by the way, and as President Trump said, there’s an easy way and a hard way. Everyone prefers the easy way, which is Hamas. With the help of the mediators delivers the weapons, but if they don’t, there’s a hard way too.,” he added.
TRUMP CONVENES FIRST ‘BOARD OF PEACE’ MEETING AS GAZA REBUILD HINGES ON HAMAS DISARMAMENT
President Donald Trump (L) greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he arrives at the White House. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Eisenberg went on to say that Iran must also eventually give up control over Gaza under the 20-pont plan agreed to between the U.S., Israel and Hamas.
“Hamas is still there. But the 20-point plan says they cannot be there. They cannot be a part of government. They cannot bear arms. They have to become Swedish, basically, in order for them to stay in any role in Gaza. And so I suggest they do that sooner rather than later. And I think progress is slow. You can’t microwave a 30-year problem. It doesn’t work. Sociologists,” he said.
Eisenberg’s comments come amid multiple peace negotiations across the Middle East. Israel is hashing out an agreement to deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the U.S. is in talks with Iran.
WHAT ISRAEL WANTS FROM AN IRAN PEACE DEAL: NO ENRICHMENT, MISSILE LIMITS AND STRICT ENFORCEMENT
Netanyahu said last week that Israel and the United States remain in “full coordination” as negotiations continue.
“We share common objectives, and the most important objective is the removal of the enriched material from Iran, all the enriched material, and the dismantling of Iran’s enrichment capabilities,” Netanyahu said at the opening of a security cabinet meeting.
On the nuclear issue, former Israeli National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror said Israel’s position remains uncompromising.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“Weaponized uranium must leave Iran,” Amidror said. “The Iranians must not be allowed to enrich uranium.”
Alongside the nuclear issue, Israeli analysts say Iran’s ballistic missile program has become equally central to Israel’s security concerns.
Politics
Big donors backed Harris in 2024. For 2028, they’re not so sure
WASHINGTON — As Kamala Harris eyes a possible 2028 presidential bid, there is little outward enthusiasm among her biggest 2024 backers to fund a repeat performance, adding to uncertainty about the former vice president’s prospects in what is sure to be a crowded primary field.
The Times reached out to more than two dozen top donors to the biggest pro-Harris super PAC in 2024. Several of them said they do not plan to support her should she choose to run, or declined to talk about her. Others did not respond.
“I don’t think it’s a helpful narrative [for 2028] to start with the 2024 hangover,” said one fundraiser for Harris’ 2024 campaign, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “There is an enormous appetite for new blood — something fresh, something that really represents the future, not the past.”
That narrative is poised to present Harris’ biggest challenge if she decides to run — particularly if it jeopardizes her ability to pull in crucial funding. Though few in the party want to criticize Harris, few appear inclined to endorse her, and conversations about her prospects often come down to one thing: Democrats’ anxiety about winning.
“She’s run, she’s lost, so the question’s going to be, is there somebody that gives Democratic voters more of a sense that they could win?” said Dick Harpootlian, a longtime South Carolina Democratic strategist. “That’s what all of us are looking for. We want to win in ‘28.”
The chatter among party elites appears at odds with recent polling in Harris’ favor, including in April’s Harvard Center for American Political Studies/Harris Poll, which showed Harris leading the Democratic field with support from 50% of Democrats.
The former vice president has also been met with enthusiasm from audiences in a series of recent speaking stops — including when she told a friendly crowd at a New York conference in April that she “might” run for president.
Harris remains undecided about whether to mount a run, according to a person familiar with her thinking, who said Friday she has been focused on boosting Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, meeting voters and delivering messages about the economy and affordability.
If she were to run, Harris would expect a crowded primary field to split donors and would be aware of the need to overcome the perception of skeptics, this person said — but noted that 2028 would afford a very different dynamic than the circumstances under which she took the nomination in 2024.
“There’s a bit of a ‘doth protest too much’ quality to some of these complaints about the idea of her running,” said the person close to her. “It may be a backhanded way of acknowledging that she’d be quite formidable if she decided to get in.”
Speculation about whether Harris would run again — and whether she should — has swirled since her truncated 2024 campaign ended in defeat to Donald Trump. Harris’ decision not to run for California governor in a wide-open race was broadly viewed as signaling presidential ambitions, and she reentered the public eye with the publication of a book about the 2024 campaign and an associated speaking tour.
Last month, Harris gave her strongest signal yet that she could seek the party’s nomination again, telling the Rev. Al Sharpton at a gathering of his civil rights organization in New York that she was “thinking about it.”
“I know what the job is and I know what it requires,” Harris said at the time.
Harris’ 2024 loss to Trump and failure to capture any battleground states — after entering the race late following President Biden’s exit — was bruising for Democrats. The defeat is lingering longer for some top donors than it did after Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016, making them extra wary, said one Democratic political consultant.
“Especially in the donor class, everyone feels burnt,” he said. “People just want to turn the page.”
The Times contacted top donors to Future Forward, the Democratic super PAC that spent the most to back Harris in the 2024 election. All the donors contacted gave at least $1 million and some acted as bundlers for the campaign, soliciting big checks from other donors in addition to their own contributions.
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, who gave $1 million to Future Forward in 2024, said he hoped to support a different Californian.
“Gavin is the candidate who can motivate both the left and the center,” Hastings told The Times, referring to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
A bundler for both Harris and Biden said it comes down to who can give Democrats the best chance to succeed.
“I think it is too early to pick a favorite in the 2028 race, but Kamala Harris will not be my candidate,” this person said. “I don’t think she would appeal to a swing voter, and we need swing voters to win.”
Others, including a few party leaders, deflected questions by citing a focus on this year’s midterm elections. Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), who last year praised Newsom’s presidential prospects during a visit by the governor, said Tuesday that Democrats should be zeroed in on 2026.
“I’m not thinking about 2028, and if she were to call me I wouldn’t talk to her about it,” Clyburn told The Times when asked about Harris’ chances.
Enthusiasm for Harris and skepticism about her viability in 2028 aren’t mutually exclusive, said the former Harris fundraiser.
“A lot of people love her and also don’t think that she is the answer for 2028,” the fundraiser said.
The attitudes of the donor class and political elite may be at odds with those of regular Americans, particularly Black and working-class voters, the Democratic political consultant said. Few of the possible candidates have the potential to excite Black voters the way Harris does, he said.
If a candidate, whether Harris or someone else, makes a successful case that they can win, Black voters will be “strategic and optimistic enough” to rally around whoever it is, said Keneshia Grant, a Howard University political scientist.
But, she said, “I don’t think that they are going to take well to work by elites or the donor class to sideline Harris if there is no clear, reasonable, exciting, Obama-level, yes-we-can candidate instead of her.”
Harris speaks the Public Counsel Awards Dinner on April 29 in Beverly Hills.
(Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)
In recent weeks, Harris has spoken at a fundraiser in South Carolina, a party luncheon in Michigan and a dinner in Arkansas. On Thursday, she was in Nevada to rally Democrats ahead of the midterm primary.
She also joined other likely 2028 contenders at the Colorado Speaker Series in Denver and Sharpton’s conference, accepted an award from the nonprofit Public Counsel at a Los Angeles gala and addressed the National Women’s Law Center gala in Washington to a warm reception, as did Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
“She was inspiring, she was hopeful, she pushed back on Trump,” said Jay Parmley, head of the Democratic Party in South Carolina, where Harris spoke at a party-hosted fundraiser in Greenville on April 15.
South Carolina, a key primary state, could help unlock Harris’ path to the nomination. If Black voters there boosted her to a win, she could build early momentum.
But Parmley said he believed she would have to “get over” the hurdle of convincing voters that she can beat the GOP.
“I don’t think it’s a given she wins here without work,” Parmley said. “She’s going to have to really visit with voters and work just like everybody else.”
Times staff writer Ana Ceballos in Washington contributed to this report.
Politics
Video: The G.O.P. Rush To Break Up Majority-Black Districts
new video loaded: The G.O.P. Rush To Break Up Majority-Black Districts
By Nick Corasaniti, Laura Bult, June Kim, Edward Vega and Leanne Abraham
May 9, 2026
-
Technology5 minutes agoAshnymph’s Childhood EP is an exhilarating dance goth debut.
-
World11 minutes agoWoman who spent 7 years in Chinese prison describes torture, surveillance and loss of her husband
-
Politics17 minutes agoTrump-backed Board of Peace, Israel ‘will take action’ if Hamas remains out of compliance: Netanyahu advisor
-
Health23 minutes agoCelebrity chef reveals No. 1 mistake sabotaging your weight loss: ‘Fuzzy math’
-
Sports29 minutes ago2026 NASCAR Odds: Pole-sitter Shane van Gisbergen Favorite for Watkins Glen
-
Technology35 minutes agoWhy last year’s breach is this year’s identity fraud
-
Business41 minutes agoPressure grows on California attorney general to try to block Paramount’s deal for Warner Bros.
-
Entertainment47 minutes agoCulver City’s Wende Museum of the Cold War announces major expansion in Hawthorne