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The U.S. will suspend all worker visas for commercial truck drivers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday, intensifying the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign drivers following a deadly crash in Florida.

“Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Rubio wrote 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.”

The move comes days after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Department of Transportation had launched an investigation into the Aug. 12 crash on Florida’s Turnpike that killed three people, according to a Reuters report.  

Authorities said the driver, Harjinder Singh, an Indian national, was in the U.S. illegally and did not speak English. 

He has been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide after allegedly attempting an illegal U-turn through a restricted access point, causing a minivan to collide with his truck.

DOT investigators said Singh failed an English assessment, answering only two of 12 verbal questions correctly and identifying one of four road signs during a compliance check, Politico noted.

Records showed he improperly obtained commercial licenses in Washington and California despite being ineligible. Singh was cited for speeding in New Mexico in July but was not given a language test at the time. 

Florida officials have taken custody of him to face charges.

Duffy said the crash highlighted failures in state-level enforcement of federal standards. “If states had followed the rules, this driver would never have been behind the wheel and three precious lives would still be with us,” Duffy said. “Non-enforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier.”

U.S. President Donald Trump in April signed an executive order reinstating strict enforcement of the English-proficiency rule for commercial drivers, reversing a 2016 policy that had allowed inspectors to overlook violations if they were the only infraction. 

Duffy has since directed a nationwide audit of state licensing practices.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said in 2023 that about 16% of U.S. truck drivers were born outside the country. Mexican truck drivers in Ciudad Juarez have reportedly begun studying English in response to the Trump order.

The administration has also moved to restrict foreign drivers more broadly. 

The State Department has pulled back more than twice as many visas since Trump took office compared with the same stretch in 2024, according to an official.

The tougher stance comes even as the trucking industry is still grappling with a driver shortage. The American Trucking Associations estimated the shortage at 78,800 drivers in 2022. 

However, the government has granted 1,490 H-2B visas to truckers through the current fiscal year, a modest increase from 1,400 the year before.

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