US Freezes Visas To Foreign Truck Drivers After Indian Man's Fatal Florida Crash

The US State Department said on Thursday that it will continuously vet more than 55 million US visa holders, including tourists and students, for violations of state and federal law.

Should such information be found, the visa will be revoked, several news outlets, including AP news agency and US political website The Hill, reported.

If the visa holder is in the United States, they would be subject to deportation, the department said.

It said it was looking for indicators of ineligibility, including people staying past the timeframe outlined in a visa, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activity or providing support to a terrorist organization.

This marks a significant expansion of the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented migrants as well as holders of student and visitor exchange visas.

'Anti-American activity' added to immigration screening

The statement comes just days after the Trump administration said that it will screen for "anti-American" views and antisemitism, including on social media, when vetting the applications of people applying for immigration "benefit requests."

A benefit request is any decision made by the Department of Homeland Security regarding the status of non-citizens living in the US. It can include being granted a green card, a re-entry permit or a work permit while living in the US.

The State Department said earlier this week that it has revoked more than 6,000 student visas for overstays and violations since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.

The majority of these were for assault, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and "support for terrorism."

This is just a small amount of the total international students enrolled or doing exchanges in the US.

While international student enrollment is expected to decline in 2025 because of policy changes, nearly 1.6 million foreign students studied in the US in 2024, according to the latest ICE report.

US halts visas for truck drivers

The US will also stop issuing work visas for commercial truck drivers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.

In a post on X, Rubio said the change was "effective immediately."

"The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on US roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers," Rubio said.

The halt comes after a widely publicized fatal crash in Florida that saw three people killed after a truck driver made an illegal U-turn.

The truck driver, an Indian national who doesn't speak English, is not legally authorized to be in the United States.

The American Trucking Association denied back in March what it called the "dubious claim" that millions of foreign truck drivers were flooding into the US, displacing American workers and jeopardizing highway safety.

"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.

About 18% of truck drivers in the US in 2021 were immigrants, according to figures from the National Association of Truckstop Operators.

Edited by: Karl Sexton

Source: DW