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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
State Department pauses issuing work visas for commercial truck drivers
By Rebekah Riess, Chris Boyette, CNN
Updated:
12:34 PM EDT, Tue August 26, 2025
Source: CNN
The State Department is pausing the issuing of work visas for
foreigners looking to become commercial truck drivers in the United
States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio .
“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 said in a
post on X.
The post did not elaborate further on reasons for the move. It comes
after the US Department of Transportation it was investigating a truck
driver of making an illegal U-turn that caused a wreck and killed three
people on Florida’s Turnpike August 12. Federal authorities he
entered the US illegally.
The driver, 28-year-old , had a commercial driver’s license in
California, the Florida highway safety department . Federal prohibit
someone illegally in the country from getting a commercial driver’s
license.
Singh flew to California after the crash, but US marshals arrested him
there last week after federal transportation investigators and after
Florida officials issued a warrant charging him with three counts of
vehicle homicide, the marshals service .
US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement issued an immigration detainer
for Singh after his August 16 arrest, meaning “he will be transferred
to ICE custody the moment his criminal case (in Florida) concludes,”
the Department of Homeland Security . And federal transportation
officials they are investigating whether California violated
regulations by issuing Singh a limited-term commercial driver’s
license.
The Transportation Department also said Singh appeared to be in
violation of its requirement that commercial motor vehicle drivers
speak English well.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in May saying commercial motor
vehicle drivers will be placed out of service if they don’t meet the
English proficiency requirement. The order, which the Transportation
Department reversed 2016 guidance that dismissed the out-of-service
penalty, .
Singh failed an English language proficiency test when federal
transportation officials interviewed him in California last week,
“providing correct responses to just two of 12 verbal questions and
only accurately identifying one of four highway traffic signs,” the
transportation department .
The American Trucking Associations expressed support for the State
Department’s visa pause this week, saying the issuance of commercial
drivers licenses to non-US citizens “needs serious scrutiny,
including the enforcement of entry-level driver training standards.”
“At a minimum, we need better accounting of how many non-domiciled
CDLs are being issued,” a statement from the ATA’s president, Chris
Spear, reads. “We also believe a surge in enforcement of key
regulations – including motor carrier compliance – is necessary to
prevent bad actors from operating on our nation’s highways, and
we’ll continue to partner with federal and state authorities to
identify where those gaps in enforcement exist.”
Following last week’s fatal crash in Florida, the organization more
“robust entry-level driver training standards,” and noted their
continued concern that “fraudulent and non-compliant entities
continue to fast-track CDL applicants with minimal, if any,
training.”
In testimony last month before a Senate commerce subcommittee, the ATA
acknowledged a driver shortage in the trucking industry. While a slump
in freight means the shortage isn’t acute as it had been three years
prior, “the industry fully expects the shortage to worsen when the
freight market recovers,” a that Spear submitted to the committee
reads.
“Over the next decade, trucking companies will need to hire roughly
1.2 million new drivers to keep pace with growing freight demand and an
aging workforce,” the statement reads.
When asked what impact the visa pause could have on the driver
shortage, ATA spokesperson Evan Fallor told CNN, “While we are
working to get more details from the administration, our initial
understanding is that this pause applies to a very small population
relative to the overall driver workforce.”
The new English proficiency requirements already were set to squeeze
the nation’s pool of 3.5 million drivers, according to , a price
reporting agency focused on the global freight market. The rule to put
drivers who fail the standards out of service “could sideline 40,000
to 60,000 interstate CDL holders,” the agency wrote in July.
Defendant extradited to Florida
Singh was extradited to Florida on Thursday. It wasn’t immediately
clear if he had an attorney in that state. He had made an appearance in
California’s San Joaquin County court on Tuesday, a public defender
assigned to Singh’s case .
“Mr. Singh was in court on Tuesday afternoon and he signed the
paperwork that acknowledged he was the person Florida was looking for
but did not in any way admit to any criminal charges,” attorney
Jennifer Perkins said in an email to the AP.
Perkins said she was “not at liberty” to discuss Singh’s
citizenship status, according to the AP.
California had given Singh a limited-term, “non-domiciled”
commercial driver’s license in July 2024, the Transportation
Department . The California Department of Motor Vehicles told CNN the
“federal government confirmed Mr. Singh’s legal presence in the
United States” when it approved the license.
“The DMV followed all federal and state laws in reviewing and
granting (Singh) his California commercial driver’s license,” the
California DMV said in a release Monday.
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