US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced an immediate halt to visas for foreign truck drivers after an Indian driver caused a fatal crash in Florida, sparking political tensions between Republicans and Democrats over immigration and road safety.
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday announced that the United States has immediately stopped issuing visas for truck drivers, soon after a fatal crash raised anger within President Donald Trump’s base.
“Effective immediately, we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Rubio wrote on X.
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“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.
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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.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) August 21, 2025
Senator Rubio acted after a truck driver was charged with killing three people in a Florida highway crash caused by an illegal U-turn.
The driver, Harjinder Singh from India, allegedly entered the U.S. illegally through Mexico and failed an English test following the accident, according to federal officials. The case has drawn major media attention and turned political, with Florida officials—under Trump’s Republican leadership—highlighting it prominently. On Thursday, the state’s lieutenant governor even flew to California with immigration agents to extradite Singh.
The crash has become a flashpoint between Republicans and Democrats. Singh had obtained his commercial license and lived in California, a Democratic-run state opposed to Trump’s immigration crackdown. The Trump administration blamed California Governor Gavin Newsom for granting Singh a license. Newsom’s office countered that Singh’s work permit was issued by Trump’s federal government, while California cooperated in extraditing him.
Even before the incident, Republican lawmakers had targeted foreign truck drivers, pointing to rising crash numbers without offering proof of a direct link to immigrants.
In June, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ordered that truck drivers must demonstrate English proficiency. U.S. commercial licenses already require basic English knowledge, including road signs. However, Obama-era 2016 guidance—reversed by Duffy—had instructed authorities not to disqualify drivers solely for language barriers.
Driven by demand, the number of foreign-born truck drivers in the U.S. more than doubled from 2000 to 2021, reaching 720,000, federal data shows. They now represent 18% of the trucking workforce.
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