(Rebecca Noble/Bloomberg)
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Effective immediately, the Trump administration is blocking foreign drivers from obtaining visas to drive commercial trucks on U.S. roads.
“We are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced via X on Aug. 21. “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’s announcement comes on the heels of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy launching an investigation into a fatal Aug. 12 crash in Florida in which a truck driven by an undocumented immigrant who had obtained commercial driver licenses from California and Washington collided with a passenger vehicle, killing three people.
Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers.
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.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) August 21, 2025
“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,” Duffy said Aug. 19.
President Donald Trump in April issued an executive order mandating that commercial drivers in the U.S. be proficient in speaking and reading English, and which directed the federal government to closely monitor commercial driver licenses issued by states to individuals who do not reside in the U.S.
RELATED: Trucking Backs English Tests as Enforcement Begins
In June, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspectors began issuing out-of-service violations for truckers unable to pass roadside tests for communicating in English and understanding road signs. The move supported both Trump’s executive order as well as a subsequent mandate from Duffy. While the law had been on the books, implementation of out-of-service violations for language proficiency had been suspended during the Obama administration.
American Trucking Associations backed Duffy’s investigation into the Aug. 12 crash.
“This driver’s blatant disregard for highway safety and the rules of the road makes clear he should never have been behind the wheel to begin with,” said ATA chief operating officer Dan Horvath. “Initial reports from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles that the driver was in the U.S. illegally only raise more questions about how and why he was able to obtain a commercial driver’s license in the first place.”
California and Washington are among 19 states that issue driver licenses to undocumented immigrants. The others are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Virginia. The District of Columbia does, as well.
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