Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Pahira Jr. may have joined the ranks of Americans whose lives were tragically cut short by foreigners illegally present in the homeland.
Pahira — a 44-year-old native of Schuylkill County who enlisted in the Pennsylvania State Police in 2007, according to the PSP — was conducting an inspection on a tractor trailer he had pulled up onto the shoulder of Interstate 81 South near Ashland on July 1 when a second tractor trailer veered off the road in his direction.
‘Trooper Pahira was a hero, and his family, fellow troopers, and the public deserve answers.’
The incoming tractor trailer sideswiped the trooper’s cruiser, careened into the truck that Pahira was inspecting, then struck the trooper. According to the PSP, both trucks caught fire on impact.
Pahira’s body was found pinned beneath the bumper of the second tractor trailer, the Pottsville Republican Herald reported. Nearby construction workers ran toward the scene of the accident and pulled Pahira free from the flaming wreckage.
Pahira — who Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro revealed has in recent weeks been taking care of his cancer-afflicted mother — was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead 90 minutes later. The driver of the tractor trailer, 33-year-old Michael Bon, was also taken to a hospital, where he was treated for injuries.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Bon is an illegal alien from Haiti who initially entered the U.S. through Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in July 2024 under the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program.
Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty Images
The DHS told the Boston Herald that Bon, who has been living in Brockton, Massachusetts, unsuccessfully filed an application in October 2024 for Temporary Protected Status — the very status the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the Trump administration to terminate late last month.
The DHS claimed that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services terminated Bon’s parole in June 2025, but the Haitian refused to leave and has remained in the country illegally ever since, the Herald reported.
Bon has been charged with felony vehicular homicide, felony vehicular aggravated assault, misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person and involuntary manslaughter, as well as various traffic offenses. The Haitian is presently being held in Schuylkill County Prison and is scheduled to appear in court again on July 16.
As of Monday afternoon, no attorney was listed for Bon on court documents.
In a statement on Sunday, the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association highlighted Bon’s illegal presence in the country at the time of the crash, noting, “This is not about politics. This is about right versus wrong. Trooper Pahira was a hero, and his family, fellow troopers, and the public deserve answers.”
“They need to know why the person accused of this senseless killing, who was in the United States illegally, had been granted a commercial driver’s license in Massachusetts,” the PSTA continued. “This individual should never have been driving such a dangerous vehicle on our highways. But he was, and now a good man is dead. Trooper Pahira should be alive today.”
In March 2025, the Haitian national reportedly obtained a non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. Bon applied to renew his CDL in February and was approved again, the MRMV confirmed to the Herald.
Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) stated, “We owe our law enforcement officers far better than this.”
Last week, Amelia Aubourg, a spokeswoman for the MRMV, attempted to assign blame for Bon’s licensing on the Trump administration, even though Massachusetts State Police are responsible for ensuring that such drivers are up to snuff in coordination with the state’s licensing authority, the Herald reported.
“The Non-Domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses program is a federal program,” Aubourg told the Herald. “This individual was ruled eligible based on the Trump administration database and allowed to drive by federal law and Trump administration policies.”
“The RMV relies on the federal SAVE database to determine whether someone is eligible to work in the United States. When Bon applied … in 2025 and 2026, he was listed by the federal government as eligible,” Aubourg added.
The Massachusetts State Police told Blaze News that its “role is limited to conducting the commercial skills test for the CDL program.”
Blaze News did not immediately receive comment from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The Trump administration issued a final rule on March 16 barring DACA recipients, asylum seekers, refugees, TPS holders, and other noncitizens from obtaining, renewing, upgrading, or transferring non-domiciled CDL licenses.
During a press conference last week, Gov. Shapiro asked “the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to pray for the Pahira family. To pray for his friends and neighbors. To pray for Troop L, where Mike served. And, of course, to pray for the entire Pennsylvania State Police family.”
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Illegal alien, Semi-truck, Truck driver, Haiti, Crime, Commercial driver’s licenses, Politics
