The United States has stopped issuing new worker visas for commercial truck drivers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday. The freeze, effective immediately, is aimed at addressing safety risks posed by drivers who lack English proficiency and at safeguarding U.S. trucking jobs. Rubio’s order follows a 12 August collision on Florida’s Turnpike near Fort Pierce that killed three people. Investigators say Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old Indian national who entered the country illegally in 2018, attempted a prohibited U-turn in a tractor-trailer, forcing a minivan to slam into the trailer. Despite his immigration status, Singh obtained commercial driver’s licences in Washington state in 2023 and California in 2024. A preliminary Department of Transportation review found he failed an English-language assessment after the crash, correctly answering only two of 12 verbal questions and recognising one of four traffic signs. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is examining whether the states complied with federal licensing rules. Singh faces three counts of vehicular homicide. Florida Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins escorted him from a California jail to Tallahassee on Thursday after U.S. Marshals made the arrest in Stockton. Governor Ron DeSantis has blamed California’s licensing practices for the deaths, an assertion Governor Gavin Newsom rejects. Federal officials have warned that states issuing licences to undocumented drivers risk losing transportation funds.