(Photo by MANDEL NGAN)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Thursday on X that all worker visas for commercial truck drivers are paused effective immediately.
The move follows questions from the Trump administration after an illegal immigrant allegedly killed three people while making an illegal U-turn in his big rig on a Florida highway. Rubio said in his post that the pause comes as an “increasing number of foreign drivers” operating large vehicles are endangering Americans.
“Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker 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.
Indian national Harjinder Singh, who has been unlawfully living in the U.S., was charged Monday with three counts of vehicular homicide after three people died when he made an illegal U-turn on Florida’s Turnpike near Port St. Lucie.
Video footage posted online of the incident shows Singh and another individual in his truck attempting the illegal U-turn before a black car could be seen plowing into Singh’s truck that appeared to be blocking all the lanes
According to an investigation conducted by Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, in coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Singh illegally entered the U.S. in 2018 through the U.S.-Mexico border, later obtaining his commercial driver’s license (CDL) in California.
Port of Los Angeles, California, USA. (Photo by Siri Stafford/via Getty Images)
Questions have been raised by the Trump administration on how Singh was able to obtain his CDL as investigators found that the illegal immigrant has very limited knowledge of both the English language and American road signs.
According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Singh failed an English Language Proficiency assessment, providing only two correct responses out of 12 verbal questions and correctly identifying just one of four highway traffic signs. During a press conference about the incident, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy stated the department would be taking every measure to hold “states and bad actors accountable.”
“Non-enforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier, resulting in unqualified foreign drivers improperly acquiring licenses to operate 40-ton vehicles,” Duffy said. “We will use every tool at our disposal to hold these states and bad actors accountable.”
While Singh attempted to seek refuge in California after charges were brought against him, Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins was sent by the governor on Wednesday to retrieve him and bring him back.
As of 2023 data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 16% of truck drivers have been born outside of the U.S., according to Reuters.
