US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Thursday that the issuing of visas for commercial truck drivers is being halted due to the reported endangerment of American lives on the road.
“Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Rubio posted on X. “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.”
This decision comes roughly a week after an Indian national, Harjinder Singh, who entered the US illegally in 2018 through the southern border, made an illegal u-turn on a turnpike and crashed into another vehicle, killing three.
“If states had followed the rules, this driver would never have been behind the wheel and three precious lives would still be with us,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said about the fatal incident.
“This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures,” Duffy continued. “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.”
According to CBS News, the visa hiatus comes “amid a commercial truck driver shortage in the U.S. According to the American Trucking Association, a trade group, the industry is facing a shortage of about 60,000 drivers.”
This move further echoes a prior initiative taken by the White House toward US truck drivers. In April 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order ensuring that all commercial drivers are proficient in English.
