Visa Lawyer Blog
On August 21, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the State Department is temporarily pausing the issuance of work visas for foreign nationals seeking employment as commercial truck drivers in the U.S.
“Increasing numbers of foreign drivers behind the wheels of large tractor-trailers on America’s roads are putting lives at risk and threatening the jobs of American truckers,” Rubio stated in a post on X.
The likely reason behind this drastic move is a deadly highway crash that occurred in the state of Florida, involving a commercial truck driver who made an illegal U-turn killing at least three people.
Federal authorities claim that the driver entered the United States illegally, did not speak English, and held a limited-term commercial driver’s license from the state of California. According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the federal government confirmed the driver’s legal presence in the United States when it approved his commercial driver’s license in 2024.
Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order directing the enforcement of a rule requiring commercial drivers in the U.S. to meet English proficiency standards, with violators subject to being taken out of service. Based on an internal investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the driver failed to establish English proficiency “providing correct responses to just two of 12 verbal questions and only accurately identifying one of four highway traffic signs.”