A crash on Interstate 81 that killed Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Pahira Jr. has become a focal point for arguments about both road safety and immigration enforcement, according to State Senator Doug Mastriano. The driver of the truck, Michael Bon, a 33-year-old Haitian national, is alleged to have caused the fatal collision and was arrested afterwards. The Department of Homeland Security says Bon entered the United States under a mass parole programme introduced during Joe Biden's presidency, a detail Mastriano argues made the tragedy "doubly preventable".

Mastriano, a Republican representing Gettysburg whose district covers much of the heavily trafficked I-81 corridor, was the architect of Pennsylvania's "move-over" law. That law, signed by then-Democratic Governor Tom Wolf, followed his 2019 legislative campaign, which was prompted by conversations with a local tow-truck operator and by the death of tow trucker Tyler Laudenslager on I-81. The law requires motorists to move over or slow down for emergency and tow vehicles — something Bon allegedly failed to do when he struck Pahira's cruiser. Mastriano contends the trooper would still be alive had federal authorities enforced border laws so that "only people coming in legally can be on the roads".