BREAKING: Trump admin pauses all worker visas for commercial truck drivers

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday that the Trump administration would pause “all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers.” This follows a crash in Florida where a commercial truck driver using licenses obtained from California and Washington state made an illegal left hand turn off the highway and killed three people. He was charged with vehicular homicide.

“Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Rubio said. “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.”

CDL Life reported in December 2024 that the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security had opened nearly 65,000 H-2B visas for the fiscal year, which includes visas for truckers. That number about doubles the total number of that kind of visa for the fiscal period that ends in September 2025.

“There are employers across the country that would suffer greatly without H-2B workers. Authorizing these supplemental visas helps U.S. employers fill those positions,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement at the time.

“It helps fuel our economy and reduce irregular migration while also providing a safe and lawful pathway to the United States for noncitizens who are prepared to work.”

The Trump administration has taken a different approach, tightening the border and the visa system since taking office in January 2024. President Trump has also demanded that truckers operating in the US speak English. Those who cannot, he said, would not be permitted to drive commercially in the US.

The Department of Transportation has launched an investigation into the deadly Florida crash that took three lives. In an English proficiency test, the driver of the truck was found to not be proficient and was unable to read many highway signs. 

“If states had followed the rules, this driver would never have been behind the wheel and three precious lives would still be with us. This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures. 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,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy.

“We will use every tool at our disposal to hold these states and bad actors accountable. President Trump and I will restore safety to our roads. The families of the deceased deserve justice,” he said.