Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the department paused issuing employment visas for commercial truck drivers.
“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,” Rubio wrote on X.
The move comes after illegal alien Harjinder Singh, 28, killed three people in South Florida after doing an illegal U-turn.
Singh entered the U.S. illegally in 2018. He told DHS he feared for his life in India and stayed.
However, then-President Donald Trump’s administration did not issue Singh a work visa.
But in 2021, former President Joe Biden’s administration gave Dingh a work permit, allowing him to obtain a license in California.
Singh received a full-term commercial driver’s license in Washington in 2023 despite not being eligible for one.
To make matters worse, in July 2024, California issued Singh a limited-term non-domiciled commercial driver’s license despite failing the English Language Proficiency assessment, answering two of 12 verbal questions, and accurately identifying only one of four highway signs.
Department of Transportation Secretary issued “an order outlining new guidance to enforce English proficiency requirements for truckers along with a nationwide audit of state’s that provide people non-domiciled commercial drivers licenses to non-U.S. citizens.”
Politico noted that New Mexico police pulled over Singh on July 3. The officers gave him a speeding ticket, but did not give him an English language test.
The government issued 1,490 H-2B visas for truckers in the fiscal year 2025.
The H-2B visas allow “U.S. employers or U.S. agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary nonagricultural jobs.”
The employers must meet specific criteria before any worker can receive the visa. The main issue is that the industry does not have “enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work.”
The trucking industry has a major driver shortage.
Despite the shortage, the American Trucking Associations applauded Rubio’s decision:
The ATA said it supported the the government’s pause of work visas, adding that the issuance of commercial driver’s licenses to foreigners “needs serious scrutiny.”“We also believe a surge in enforcement of key regulations — including motor carrier compliance — is necessary to prevent bad actors from operating on our nation’s highways, and we’ll continue to partner with federal and state authorities to identify where those gaps in enforcement exist,” ATA Chief Executive Officer Chris Spear said in a statement.
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