Indian truck drivers to be possibly worst hit by US pause on worker visas

AN illegal U-Turn by an alien Indian immigrant truck driver recently could impact the fortunes of the American commercial transport industry.

Punjabi truck driver Harjinder Singh carelessly used an ‘Official Use Only’ segment in the highway to abruptly perform an illegal U-turn at the last second, stretching his truck’s trailer across two lanes of highway, resulting in a minivan slamming straight into it, killing the driver and two passengers.

The accident took place on 12 August in St. Lucie County, Florida.

The results have come sooner and more drastically than expected. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted on August 22: “Effective immediately, we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers. 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.”

It should be considered a body blow for Indian truckers, who have plied their wares in the USA for several years and done so successfully.

Singh, who reportedly crossed the US-Mexico border in 2018, had obtained a commercial driver’s licence in California. He has done what illegal immigrants often do: misuse a law passed in California in 2013 that allows residents to get a driver’s licence regardless of their immigration status.

The incident has put political rivalries out in the open. “Biden administration’s push to hire an influx of foreign drivers to fill trucker shortage created dangerously unsafe roadways for Americans,” screeched Infowars, an American website.

Visa Crackdown

Since Trump's inauguration, the State Department has revoked more than twice as many visas compared to the same period in 2024, an official revealed, as the White House seeks to highlight its crackdown on foreign nationals it claims pose risks to public safety, Bloomberg reported.

While there are no figures readily available for Indians who are likely to be hit due to this new policy, in the 2025 budget year, 1,490 H-2B visas for truckers were issued. Last year, this number stood at 1,400.

According to the North American Punjabi Trucking Association (NAPTA), there were about 30,000 Sikhs in the USA’s trucking industry in 2018. That number could have gone up considerably.

NAPTA now has an estimated membership of 1,400, owning between them about 9,000 trucks. Its CEO Raman Dhillon told a local magazine that undocumented Indians from Punjab become truck drivers. “There is a severe shortage of drivers and Punjabis are filling in that gap,” he said.

This shortage was best reflected in the views of Brent Allen, an American transport insider, who reacting to Rubio’s quote, tweeted: “Hopefully this driver visa pause will be short term to put in new safeguards like physical exams and driver testing as the US currently has far fewer commercial drivers than are needed for daily commerce. This shortage has benefited the commercial driver with starting salaries.”

Drivers of Indian origin in the US are part of various regional associations, such as the NAPTA, and are represented through broader industry groups like the American Trucking Associations, who focus on issues like licensing, worker welfare, and industry regulations.