The United States is immediately pausing the issuance of all worker visas for commercial truck drivers, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said.
"The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on US roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers," he wrote on X.
Mr Rubio's action came after a truck driver was charged with killing three people on a highway in Florida while making an illegal U-turn.
Harjinder Singh, who is from India, allegedly entered the United States illegally from Mexico and failed an English examination after the crash, according to federal officials.
Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) August 21, 2025
The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.
The case has gathered wide media attention and has been raised prominently by officials in Florida, controlled by the Republican Party, with the lieutenant governor flying to California to extradite Mr Singh personally alongside immigration agents yesterday.
The crash has taken on a political dimension as Mr Singh received his commercial license and lived in California, a Democratic state, which opposes Mr Trump's crackdown on immigration.
The Trump administration accused California Governor Gavin Newsom of responsibility as the state issued Mr Singh a license.
Mr Newsom's office responded that the federal government under Mr Trump had issued Mr Singh his work permit and that California cooperated in extraditing him.
Even before the crash, Republicans have been taking aim at foreign truckers, pointing to a rising number of crashes without providing evidence of a direct link to immigrants.
In June, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a directive that truck drivers must speak English.
Truck drivers in the United States are required to pass a test for a commercial license that has long included an assessment of whether they are proficient in English on basics such as road signs.
But 2016 guidance under former president Barack Obama, which was reversed by Mr Duffy, told authorities not to take truckers off the road solely on account of language deficiencies.
Meeting demand, the number of foreign-born truck drivers in the United States more than doubled between 2000 and 2021 to 720,000, according to federal statistics.
Foreign-born drivers now make up 18% of the industry - in line with the United States labour market as a whole, but a departure for a profession long identified with the white working class.
More than half of the foreign-born drivers come from Latin America with sizable numbers in recent years from India and Eastern European nations, especially Ukraine, according to industry groups.
Accreditation: AFP
