Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that the U.S. will not be accepting any more foreign truck drivers for the immediate future after a fatal crash involving an illegal alien who somehow got a license to operate a semi truck.
The policy from the U.S. State Department would end visas for tractor-trailer drivers, a move designed to protect American jobs as well as American drivers from foreigners who are unable to understand English or U.S. road laws.
This does not revoke the visas that are currently active, though the Trump admin is now requiring CDL drivers to pass English tests in order to retain their licenses - something police are also supposed to do during traffic stops. In the case of the Florida incident, the driver had been stopped earlier this summer in New Mexico for speeding and had not been issued an English proficiency test.
When the U.S. Transportation Department gave the driver a test, it found he was woefully inadequate in his understanding of English, despite living in America illegally for over 6 years.
More from Politico:
The move comes the same week [Sec. of Transportation Sean] Duffy launched a DOT investigation into a deadly crash in Florida involving a truck driver from India who was reportedly in the country illegally.
The driver failed the English Language Proficiency assessment, getting two of 12 verbal questions correct and accurately identifying 1 of 4 highway signs during an on-site compliance investigation by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, according to DOT.
In May, Duffy signed an order outlining new guidance to enforce English proficiency requirements for truckers along with a nationwide audit of state's that provide people non-domiciled commercial drivers licenses to non-U.S. citizens.
Sifting through mass numbers of foreign truck drivers to weed out those who don't understand road signs or laws is a monumental task.
But at least we have an administration that seems to care?
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
