NRI PULSE STAFF REPORT
Washington, D.C., August 24, 2025: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday announced the Trump administration’s decision to suspend the issuance of new worker visas for foreign commercial truck drivers, days after a deadly highway crash in Florida involving an Indian driver sparked nationwide concern.
The move, which Rubio said takes effect immediately, comes after 30-year-old Harjinder Singh, an undocumented Indian national, was charged in connection with a fatal accident on August 12. Singh allegedly made an illegal U-turn on a Florida highway, causing a collision that killed three people. Investigators later found that Singh had obtained commercial driver’s licenses in Washington and California despite failing English proficiency assessments—raising questions about how state licensing agencies screen applicants.
Rubio framed the suspension as necessary both to protect public safety and to safeguard American trucking jobs. “We cannot allow foreign drivers who don’t meet basic safety standards to endanger lives on our roads and undercut American workers,” he said in a post on X.
The suspension primarily affects H-2B visas, which cover temporary non-agricultural workers, along with E-2 and EB-3 categories. Federal data shows that fewer than 1,500 H-2B visas for truck drivers were issued this year—a small fraction of the country’s 3.5 million commercial drivers.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said his department has launched an investigation into how Singh obtained licenses in multiple states and pledged stricter enforcement of English proficiency testing for commercial drivers.
The policy drew sharp reactions across the trucking industry and political circles. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association welcomed the freeze, arguing that the much-talked-about driver shortage has been exaggerated and that safety must remain the top priority. Immigration advocates, however, called the move politically motivated, warning it could worsen workforce shortages in an already strained supply chain.
The case also sparked political friction between state leaders, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blaming California’s licensing policies and California Governor Gavin Newsom defending his state’s regulatory framework.
Cover photo of Marco Rubio courtesy: Wikipedia.
