Secretary of State Marco Rubio has paused worker visas for truck drivers after fatal accident in Florida.

 

Harjinder Singh, who has been accused of homicide, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Fox News/Getty.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has paused worker visas for truck drivers after a fatal accident in Florida caused by an illegal alien caused three deaths. Fox News. Rubio cited public safety and competition with American citizens for jobs. Though Rubio didn't cite the case directly, the move was probably inspired by the case of Harjinder Singh, who was an illegal alien who got a California drivers license despite being in the country illegally and failing an English language and sign recognition test. Singh made an illegal u-turn on a Florida highway which caused the deaths of 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

My Comment:

I covered the Harjinder Singh case earlier this week, so I won't recap the case all that much, other than the revelations of Singh failing his trucking tests is new. The man had no business driving a truck in the United States and the three deaths he caused were entirely preventable. 

I do welcome this move from Rubio. It's insane that a career as important as trucking is being taken by non-citizens. Though I think illegal aliens getting the job is more important, it makes little sense for those jobs to be going to foreigners. 

We don't really have a shortage of truckers in this country. A lot of folks would be willing to work as a trucker if the conditions were better and the wages are higher. Those folks are currently doing other things because they are getting undercut from drivers from other countries. Stopping folks getting new work visas for the job will force trucking companies to improve conditions and hire folks from this country. 

It's hardly a problem just for trucking. Every job in America is affected by work visas. Indeed, the other big story today is that the Trump administration is going to be reviewing all 55 million visas in the country. Many of those visas are for folks here for tourism, but many of them are here for work. This has depressed the wages for everyone and is a major reason why so many young folks aren't getting jobs despite having college degrees. And it will remain a problem even if illegal immigration is fixed. 

I will say that it is nice how reactive the Trump administration was. The Singh story went viral this weekend and by Thursday we have a major policy change to deal with the problem. Folks have been saying "you can just do things" and they are right. This is how government should work, when a problem crops up, they just take action and hopefully that deals with it. 

Of course this isn't a panacea. There are still a lot of drivers, legal or not, that are on the roads that really shouldn't be. Simply banning new ones from coming to the country won't fix the ones that are here. At least these visas are going to be reviewed now so hopefully many of these bad drivers will be removed. 

To be fair, there are a lot of immigrant drivers that are decent enough at their jobs. I don't want all of them to lose their jobs as some of them are just as competent as American drivers (and there are more than a few American truck drivers that are terrible). But there is no reason we have to tolerate the kind of driver that makes a u-turn on a busy highway.  

Finally, I do have to mention that I have been very impressed by Rubio as Secretary of State. I was skeptical of him and never really forgave him for running against Trump in 2016. But he's been great at Secretary of State and I am truly impressed, to the point where I wouldn't have any reservations voting for him for President in 2028 or 2032.