A Pennsylvania state trooper who moved home to care for his cancer-stricken mother is dead because an illegal alien from Haiti — admitted under Biden's humanitarian parole program, ordered to leave the country, and handed a commercial trucker's license by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts — drove a semi into him on the shoulder of Interstate 81.
The killing of 44-year-old Trooper Michael E. Pahira Jr. isn't an accident of policy. It is the predictable result of a system that waves foreign nationals in, fails to remove them when ordered, and lets states put them behind the wheel of 80,000-pound trucks on American roads. Pahira was inspecting a commercial vehicle on the right shoulder in Cass Township around 7 a.m. Wednesday when a second semi, driven by 33-year-old Michael Bon, veered off the roadway and struck Pahira's patrol car and the truck he was inspecting in a domino effect. Both cabs caught fire. Construction workers nearby saw the smoke and rushed to help the pinned trooper. Pahira was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Bon entered the United States through Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in July 2024 under the Biden administration's humanitarian parole program for Haitian nationals, according to DHS. He applied for Temporary Protected Status in October 2024. The application was denied. DHS terminated his parole on June 13, 2025, and issued a notice to leave the country. Bon refused and remained in Brockton, Massachusetts — illegally.
While living in the country unlawfully, Bon obtained a non-domiciled commercial driver's license from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles in March 2025, when he was still authorized to work under federal law. The license was renewed in February 2026, a month before the Trump administration directed states to stop issuing or renewing non-domiciled CDLs for ineligible drivers.
The Massachusetts RMV is pointing fingers at the federal government. Spokesperson Amelia Aubourg told the Boston Herald that Bon "was ruled eligible based on the Trump administration database and allowed to drive by federal law and Trump administration policies." The RMV says it relies on the federal SAVE database to determine work eligibility and that Bon was listed as eligible both times he applied.
What the RMV didn't volunteer is that the Massachusetts State Police CDL unit — which conducts all commercial skills tests in coordination with the RMV — has its own corruption problem. Six MSP troopers in the CDL unit were found guilty last year of a conspiracy to pass drivers who failed their road tests in exchange for gifts, a scheme prosecutors called "the golden handshake," the Boston Herald reported. The RMV insists the State Police role is "limited to conducting the commercial skills tests" and that they "do not have the authority to approve or issue CDLs." The buck, apparently, stops nowhere.
Bon has been charged with homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, reckless driving, and additional counts. He is held on $700,000 bail with a DHS immigration detainer lodged against him. His next court date is July 15.
Pahira, a Pennsylvania state trooper since 2007, was remembered as "a good man and a good cop" who had just moved back in with his mother while she battled cancer. Fox News reported that those who knew him described a man who put family first — the kind of American this country was built by and for.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has made tightening commercial driver licensing rules a top priority, launching a nationwide audit of states issuing non-domiciled CDLs after a string of deadly crashes. In April, the DOT withheld more than $73 million in federal funding from New York for failing to revoke licenses issued to ineligible drivers. President Trump told Congress that at least 17 fatal crashes in 2025 — killing 30 people — involved illegal immigrants driving commercial vehicles with CDLs.
Biden's parole program let Bon in. DHS ordered him out and couldn't enforce it. Massachusetts handed him a CDL and is now blaming federal databases. A trooper who came home to take care of his sick mother is dead. Every layer of government touched this case and every layer failed.
