The United States has suspended the issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers with immediate effect, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday. The measure blocks foreign drivers from entering the profession under H-2B and other employment categories, which Rubio argued had raised highway safety risks and depressed U.S. wages. The policy was prompted by a 12 August crash on Florida’s Turnpike that killed three people. Investigators say Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old Indian national who entered the country illegally, executed an unauthorized U-turn in an 18-wheel tractor-trailer and could not read English road signs. Singh held commercial driver’s licences issued in California and Washington despite failing a post-crash English-language test. Citing the same accident, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on 26 August gave California, Washington and New Mexico 30 days to enforce federal English-proficiency rules for truckers or lose Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program funds. The three states could forfeit roughly $46 million annually—about $33 million for California, $10 million for Washington and $7 million for New Mexico—if they remain out of compliance. Duffy simultaneously cancelled $175 million in grants for four projects linked to California’s high-speed rail line, saying the state had repeatedly ignored trucking-safety requirements. Florida and several other states have begun roadside checkpoints and warned that drivers who cannot communicate in English face arrest, underscoring the administration’s broader effort to tighten oversight of commercial carriers.