Rubio halts work visas for truck drivers citing serious safety concerns

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement this week halting work visas for foreign commercial truck drivers drew praise from conservatives in the wake of a deadly accident in Florida.

“Effective immediately, we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Rubio announced on X on Thursday. “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 follows a deadly crash in Florida in which an illegal immigrant from India allegedly struck and killed three people while driving a truck. Questions still loom about how he obtained a commercial driver’s license, as federal investigators say the suspect, Harjinder Singh, failed English proficiency and road sign tests.

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Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, stated the move is “long overdue” and that commercial truck drivers should not be brought in from other nations in the first place.

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“There are legitimate questions about how qualified these foreign truck drivers are, following the horrible episode in Florida, where a non-English-speaking illegal alien who never should have been given any kind of driver’s license caused the death of three people as he botched an illegal U-turn in the middle of a divided highway,” Vaughan said.

Americans can’t depend on trucking companies and state regulators to make sure foreign truck drivers are competent and safe, she added.

The director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, Lora Ries, said it’s “about road safety and immigration integrity.”

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“DHS and the State Department should also analyze all current commercial truck drivers using a visa or an employment authorization document as the basis to obtain a commercial driver’s license and revoke such immigration benefits where appropriate. This is about road safety and immigration integrity,” Ries wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Republican attorney Mehek Cooke said it ultimately boils down to “sovereignty and safety.”

Fox News Digital also reached out to left-leaning immigrant advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center.

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“Massive truck driver shortage that is driving up the prices of everything we purchase and Rubio decides to make it worse based on an anecdote. Totally absurd decision-making process though I don’t know what visas he’s even talking about ‘pausing,’” David Bier, the CATO Institute’s director of immigration studies, posted to X in disagreement with the move from Rubio.

The Trump administration has made a series of major immigration reforms, as mass deportation efforts are underway following the Biden-era border crisis. In addition, the administration announced that it is currently reviewing millions of people with U.S. visas.

“The department’s continuous vetting includes all of the more than 55 million foreigners who currently hold valid U.S. visas,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday.

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.