Illegal Trucker Slaughters Four—Licensing System Shattered

Four members of an Amish community died when a semi-truck driver who entered the United States through a mobile phone app fourteen months earlier swerved into oncoming traffic on an Indiana highway.

Story Snapshot

Bekzhan Beishekeev, a 30-year-old illegal immigrant from Kyrgyzstan, crashed a semi-truck into a van carrying Amish passengers on February 3, 2026, killing four people
Beishekeev entered the U.S. in December 2024 using the Biden administration’s CBP One app and received a Pennsylvania commercial driver’s license seven months later
Federal authorities shut down three trucking companies and revoked a CDL school’s certification in response to the crash
The incident represents the latest in a series of fatal crashes involving illegal immigrant truck drivers, prompting a nationwide audit of state licensing procedures

When the System Breaks Down on a Rural Highway

State Road 67 in Jay County, Indiana cuts through farming country where Amish buggies share the pavement with eighteen-wheelers. On a February afternoon, that intersection of worlds turned catastrophic. Bekzhan Beishekeev failed to brake for slowing traffic ahead and yanked his 2022 Freightliner into the westbound lane. The semi collided head-on with a Chevrolet van carrying fifteen passengers. Henry Eicher, 50, died along with his sons Menno, 25, and Paul, 19. Simon Girod, 23, also perished. The tight-knit Amish community in Bryant suddenly had four empty chairs at dinner tables.

A Phone App That Became a Political Lightning Rod

Beishekeev’s path to that highway began at the Nogales, Arizona port of entry on December 19, 2024. He used the CBP One mobile application, a Biden-era program designed to facilitate orderly immigration processing. The application granted him parole status upon arrival. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later compared the app to “a magic pass for Disney, Disneyland” when discussing how easily Beishekeev entered the country. By July 2025, Pennsylvania had issued him a commercial driver’s license. Seven months after that, four people were dead.

The Pattern Nobody Could Ignore Anymore

The Indiana crash was not an isolated incident. Just months earlier in October 2025, four Americans died over nine days in two separate crashes caused by illegal immigrants holding commercial driver’s licenses. Those earlier tragedies prompted Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to announce a nationwide audit of state CDL issuance procedures. The audit announcement came just days before Beishekeev’s crash added four more names to the casualty list. The recurring nature of these incidents revealed cracks in a system where immigration policy, state licensing procedures, and commercial transportation safety intersected with deadly consequences.

Swift Federal Response With Broad Implications

ICE issued an immigration detainer against Beishekeev at Jay County Jail on February 4, one day after the crash. By February 5, he was in federal custody facing both criminal charges and immigration proceedings. The enforcement actions extended far beyond the driver. On February 13, the Department of Transportation knocked AJ Partners, Beishekeev’s employer, out of service. Two additional carriers connected to AJ Partners, Tutash Express and Sam Express, also lost their operating authority. Aydana CDL School had its certification revoked for facilitating Beishekeev’s license acquisition.

Who Bears Responsibility for the Failures

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin pointed fingers at two administrations when she stated that Beishekeev was “released into our country by the Biden administration using the CBP One app” and “given a commercial driver’s license by Governor Shapiro’s Pennsylvania.” Her assessment that it is “incredibly dangerous for illegal aliens, who often don’t know our traffic laws or even English, to be operating semi-trucks on America’s roads” cut to the heart of the public safety argument. Transportation Secretary Duffy characterized the enforcement actions as just the beginning, declaring the crackdown would continue until “every bad actor is held ACCOUNTABLE.”

The criticism raises legitimate questions about how someone with uncertain immigration status obtained credentials to operate an 80,000-pound vehicle on American highways. Pennsylvania’s sanctuary state policies came under scrutiny for prioritizing political ideology over basic safety verification. The CBP One app, while designed to create orderly processing, appears to have become a backdoor entry system without adequate safeguards to prevent dangerous individuals from exploiting subsequent state-level licensing procedures. These policy decisions had tangible, tragic consequences that four Amish families will carry for the rest of their lives.

Trucking Industry Faces Reckoning Over Exploitation

The enforcement actions against multiple carriers and a CDL school suggest systematic abuse rather than isolated lapses. Secretary Duffy noted that “open borders policies of the last administration allowed millions to flood our country, leading to serious allegations that the trucking licensing system is being exploited.” The shutdown of three interconnected carriers points to potential networks that deliberately circumvented documentation requirements to staff their operations. The revocation of Aydana CDL School’s certification indicates training providers may have participated in or enabled the exploitation. The commercial trucking industry now faces increased federal scrutiny and potential regulatory overhauls that could establish stricter documentation verification and enhanced oversight of CDL schools.

A Community Grieves While Investigations Continue

The Indiana State Police Critical Incident Reconstruction Team continues its investigation in coordination with multiple agencies. Beishekeev remains in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings that will likely result in deportation. The Amish community in Bryant, meanwhile, buries its dead and processes grief that arrived without warning on an ordinary February afternoon. The nationwide audit of CDL issuance procedures moves forward, seeking to prevent the next tragedy. Whether these enforcement actions and policy reviews come too late for meaningful prevention or represent genuine systemic reform remains to be seen. Four families already know the answer to that question.