Quadruple fatal magnifies focus on CDL licensure

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(The Center Square) – Four people killed in Indiana by a big rig driver with a CDL license from Pennsylvania has magnified the consequences of a program in jeopardy of losing $75 million in fiscal funding from the federal government.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Tuesday’s crash was caused by Bekzhan Beishekeev of Kyrgyzstan failing to brake for a slowed semi-truck and swerving into the westbound traffic on a two-lane highway. His 18-wheeler crashed head-on into a 15-passenger van on State Road 67.

On Nov. 20, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration found Pennsylvania in violation of federal safety regulations tied to issuing nondomiciled commercial driver’s licenses. Legal status, the department said, was not verified.

On Thursday, Homeland Security said Beishekeev came to America using the CBP One app offered by the Biden administration. Published reports say he entered through Nogales, Ariz., on Dec. 19, 2023, and was released via parole.

Local Indiana lawmen honored the detainer; Beishekeev is in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

According to ICE, the four killed were Henry Eicher, 50; Menno Eicher, 25; Paul Eicher, 19; and Simon Girod, 23.

The CBP One app no longer works that way. Second-term Republican President Donald Trump, on Inauguration Day, turned the platform into a self-deportation app.

“Beishekeev illegally came to the United States using the Biden administration’s disastrous CBP One app and was released into the United States,” Homeland Security said. “Even worse, Josh Shapiro’s Pennsylvania issued him a commercial driver’s license. Sanctuary politicians must stop issuing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens before another American is killed.”

Oversight of commercial driver’s licensing programs drew increased scrutiny across the nation in 2025. Transportation rule changes as well as congressional legislation has been proposed related to English language proficiency for nondomiciled CDLs.

The auditing process has been ongoing throughout the second term of Republican President Donald Trump. Increased scrutiny of CDL licensure programs happened after triple-fatal crashes 66 days apart involving 18-wheelers in Florida and California.