The United States has paused issuing work visas for commercial truck drivers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.
The move comes as the Trump administration seeks to crack down on non-English-speaking truck drivers and CDLs issued by states to an individual who does not reside in that state.
"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 tweeted Thursday evening. "Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers."
The spotlight on English language proficiency has never been brighter in the wake of a few deadly accidents.
CCJ sister publication Overdrive reported Thursday that White Hawk Carriers Inc., the carrier that employed Department of Homeland Security-dubbed "illegal alien" driver Harjinder Singh at the time of his triple-fatal Florida turnpike crash, has been shut down after a national media firestorm.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) launched an investigation focusing on Harjinder Singh and White Hawk Carriers. Preliminary results of the investigation, Duffy's office said, found when interviewed the driver did not speak English, and both Washington State and New Mexico violated FMCSA rules in granting licensure.
“If states had followed the rules, this driver would never have been behind the wheel and three precious lives would still be with us. This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures," said Duffy. "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."
A loaded semi in May struck four vehicles from behind that were stopped for a red light in the southbound lane of Highway 43 at the intersection of South Industrial Park Drive in Thomasville, Alabama. The driver of the truck and another man off duty inside the cab were in the U.S. on work visas and neither spoke English.
Just a few weeks earlier, President Trump signed an executive order that enforced an existing our of service rule that requires CDL holders in the U.S. to meet English-proficiency standards.
Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), as of June 25, added ELP non-compliance to its North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria.
