The first decision comes days after a crash involving an Indian driver in Florida killed three people.
New Delhi: Days after a crash involving an Indian driver in Florida killed three people, US secretary of state Marco Rubio has announced that the United States is immediately pausing the issuance of all worker visas for commercial truck drivers.
Florida and US officials said that Harjinder Singh, who has been charged on three counts of vehicular homicide, did not speak English and did not have “legal authorisation” to be in the US, Reuters has reported.
Singh had reportedly tried to make a U-turn through a point that had an “Official Use Only” sign, when a minivan struck his truck, leading to the death of three people. Singh was arrested in California but Reuters noted in its report that his lawyer could not be immediately identified.
Rubio wrote on X: “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.”
The American Trucking Association has denied the claim that millions of foreign truck drivers were flooding into the US. “The narrative of foreign labor dumping in the US trucking industry is false and does not hold up to minimum scrutiny,” the ATA wrote in a blog post.
Truckers are required to be proficient in English in order to work in the US. A 2016 rule had been lenient in this regard and stipulated that they need not be barred solely on the lack of English skills. Trump reversed this in April this year.
‘Continuous vetting’
Rubio’s announcement comes as Associated Press reports that the Trump administration is reviewing more than 55 million people who have valid US visas for any violations that could lead to deportation. Such visa holders, who also include tourists, are subjected to “continuous vetting,” with an eye toward any indication that would make them ineligible for permission to enter or stay in the US, the state department told the AP.
Should information deemed relevant be found, the visa holder could be deported if they are in the US.
“The State Department’s new language suggests that the continual vetting process, which officials acknowledge is time-consuming, is far more widespread and could mean even those approved to be in the US could abruptly see those permissions revoked,” the report notes.
The US state department has revoked more than 6,000 student visas for overstays and violations since the start of Trump’s second presidency.
Earlier this year, over 130 Indian students had lost their F-1 and M-1 visa status after the US state department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revoked their visas and closed their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records citing law enforcement interactions, many involving no criminal charges or convictions. A federal judge later gave them relief.
Indian Express has reported today on how students from India – the largest cohort of international students in the US – have borne the brunt of visa uncertainties despite the SEVIS reinstatement
This article went live on August twenty-second, two thousand twenty five, at fifty-four minutes past one in the afternoon.
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