The Democrats have captured both houses of Congress and are gleefully announcing, “woke is back.” But there’s one inconvenient detail: President Donald Trump still controls the executive branch.
Why does that matter?
Because Ryan O’Shea mattered.
On October 16, 21-year-old Ryan O’Shea, a University of New Haven hockey captain studying criminal justice, was driving home from a game when a pickup truck traveling the wrong way on Connecticut’s Interstate 91 slammed head-on into his car. Ryan was killed instantly.
Police say the other driver was Guillermo Carmona-Lopez, who is a Mexican national who DHS says had already been removed from the United States twice. Somehow, he was back.
The story circulated widely on social media, but received limited mainstream coverage. One needn’t wonder why. Ryan was not a member of any of our media’s preferred victim classes, he wanted to go into law enforcement, and he was allegedly killed by someone who the feds say shouldn’t have been here.
Three strikes.
But his death raises a larger question: How is it possible that so many foreign drivers are permitted — or even assisted — in getting licensed to drive on our roads? Is there more going on here?
Examples similar to Ryan’s are legion. In July, Uzbek national Bekhzod Asrarov, who had entered the U.S. legally, allegedly killed 21-year-old college soccer player Tobias “Toby” Forsythe when his tractor-trailer slammed into the young man’s car. Asrarov, who held an Ohio CDL, reportedly couldn’t communicate with police without Google Translate, failed an English-proficiency test and allegedly attempted to conceal evidence, including his electronic driving logs.
Then, on September 2, Indian national Manjit Singh, whom DHS identified as illegal, was involved in another fatal Ohio crash that killed 50-year-old Brenda Watson. Singh held a California CDL and has been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide.
We could go on. Ohio has at least moved to tighten the loopholes that allowed this. Too late for two Americans.
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But that’s more than blue states are willing to do. So in September 2025, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced emergency restrictions on CDLs issued to foreign drivers after a nationwide audit uncovered widespread fraud.
In New York alone, Duffy’s audit found that over half of commercial trucking licenses went to illegal drivers — and those drivers hit the roads across the country. In one case, investigators found that a Chinese national accused of causing a fatal highway pileup in Tennessee was illegally issued a New York State driver’s license.
In California, the audit found that 25% of CDLs were unlawfully issued — with a stated policy that California will not enforce federal English proficiency rules.
So this year, Duffy began the process of cracking down on the practice nationwide. He withheld $73 million from New York State, which refuses to comply (and is suing in response).
But more significantly, the feds announced “Joint Task Force Crossroads of America,” a nationwide initiative targeting fraud and criminal activity regarding CDLs.
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How widespread is the problem? The task force started with more than 1,000 leads and inspected more than 200 driving schools across 23 states. Multiple criminal investigations have already been opened.
It’s a start. But let’s recall: Guillermo Carmona-Lopez, who allegedly killed Ryan O’Shea, did not have a CDL.
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So limiting the task force to just CDL enforcement is a mistake. Because somewhere in the DMV systems of our states there are officials issuing licenses to applicants who not only likely couldn’t pass the driver’s tests we’ve all taken — they cannot even read the exam. Or our road signs.
And someone is recruiting these drivers, getting them here, corrupting the DMVs and facilitating their placement onto our roads.
This is activity squarely within the province of the federal executive. Our newly woke Congress can bemoan investigating it… but Congress cannot stop it. And targeting the scheme also has the advantage of opening another front on immigration enforcement that doesn’t involve highly visible ICE sweeps. The Trump administration just got some good news on this front. In a major November 6 federal court ruling, Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered New York City to comply with an ICE subpoena seeking information about migrants with serious criminal histories at a Bronx shelter.
Game-changer.
The administration can now build on that reasoning by pursuing targeted, court-enforced subpoenas for New York DMV records to identify criminal aliens who have obtained driver’s licenses — and then deporting them.
The administration should go all-in on this over the next two years. Because there’s also this: At least 17 states, plus Washington, D.C., both permit illegals to obtain driver’s licenses or driving-privilege cards, while also operating automatic voter-registration systems for license holders.
The administration has received little credit for recognizing the illegal driving problem (arguably, another failure in messaging on good policy that has plagued Trump 2.0). And the standing up of the Crossroads of America task force is a good start. But this initiative could go further. Successfully enforced, it would serve as one of the ways red states demonstrate the superiority of a little common sense. So, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has gleefully announced that “75% of Americans will be governed by DEM Govs.” Fair enough — the electorate spoke.
Now the other 25% should demonstrate what makes them different by cooperating with the feds to keep illegals off the roads, penetrate the criminal networks running this trafficking and disincentivize others from accessing this pipeline to enter the country illegally.
While the new task force uses this recent federal judge’s decision to issue subpoenas, identify illegals in our DMV systems and bring sanctuary jurisdictions back in line with the Constitution.
Then maybe at least some of today’s left, so intent on resurrecting our open border madness, will recognize that young men like Ryan O’Shea are not just collateral damage for their Woke 3.0 ambitions.