The United States will immediately stop issuing all work visas to foreign truck drivers, announced Secretary of State Marco Rubio, quoted by Reuters and BTA.
"The growing number of foreign drivers driving large trucks with trailers on US roads endangers the lives of Americans and threatens the livelihoods of American truck drivers," Rubio wrote in an article in "Ex".
The administration of President Donald Trump has taken a series of measures to address concerns about foreign truck drivers who do not speak English. In April, Trump signed an executive order requiring truck drivers in the United States to meet English language proficiency requirements, Reuters reported.
Earlier this week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Administration had opened an investigation into a Florida highway crash that killed three people. The driver involved was an Indian citizen who did not speak English and was not legally allowed to live in the United States, according to state and federal officials.
Harjinder Singh attempted to make an illegal U-turn, blocking traffic and causing the fatal crash that killed three people in a minivan that hit the truck. California authorities detained Singh to extradite him to Florida.
Proficiency in English for truck drivers has long been a requirement, but an executive order signed by Trump in April of this year overturned a 2016 guideline that said inspectors would not remove drivers from their jobs if their only violation was a lack of English proficiency, Reuters noted.
About 16% of U.S. truck drivers are foreign-born, according to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Administration. Last month, Reuters reported that Mexican truck drivers in the border city of Ciudad Juarez had begun learning English in an effort to comply with Trump’s order.