The TOI correspondent from Washington: Truckin', I'm a goin' home/ Whoa whoa baby, back where I belong/ Back home, sit down and patch my bones/ And get back truckin' on. When the folksy rock band Grateful Dead wrote these lyrics in 1970 for their hit song Truckin, they couldn't possibly have had truck drivers from India on their mind.
But thousands of Indian truckers may be headed home and thousands more won't be coming to America anytime soon after the Trump administration on Thursday suspended issuance of worker visas for foreign commercial truck drivers following a fatal accident in which an undocumented Sikh truck driver from India who entered US illegally made an unlawful u-turn on a Florida highway, resulting in the death of three Americans.
The driver, identified as Harjinder Singh, later flunked English fluency and road sign tests, answering only two out of 12 questions correctly in English and identifying only one out of four highway signs shown to him, according to the US Department of Transportation. He was brought to Florida on Thursday to face vehicular homicide charges, and his brother Harneet Singh, who was a co-passenger in the truck and is also said to be undocumented, was also arrested.
The incident has triggered yet another political row between Democrat-run California, which gave Harjinder a driving license, and the Trump administration, which blamed the state's sanctuary policies for the accident and alleged foreign truck drivers were endangering American lives and jobs.
"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," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X in yet another immigration crackdown that was cheered by MAGA nativists.
Sikh advocacy groups estimate there are approximately 150,000 to 200,000 Sikhs working in the trucking industry, with around 90% (135,000 to 180,000) being drivers. They constitute about 18% of the total truck drivers in the US and up to 40% are based in California.
The entry of Punjabi Sikhs into the US trucking industry, which goes back decades, began ticking up in the 1980s due to the insurgency in Punjab, when asylum-seeking Sikhs hooked up with their forbears, among the first immigrants from India on the west coast, to hit the road in America. What was a trickle turned into a flood around 2018, attracted by the low barrier to entry, both at the Mexican border and in the industry, which at that time was also facing a driver shortage.
The nature of the job, which often involves long hours alone on the road, allowed for a high degree of personal and religious freedom to the mostly turban-wearing Sikhs. The handsome pay ($70,000 for beginners to $ 144,000 for owner operators), without the need for college degree or extensive qualifications attracted many, fueling illegal crossings at the Mexican border, a route than Harjinder Singh is reported to have taken.
There was another catch though: the lack of fluency in English and non-adherence to road signs, endemic in India, could be fatal -- as it turned out with Harjinder.
The White House flagged this issue in April this year when President Trump signed an executive order that sought to “ensure all commercial vehicle operators in the United States are proficient English speakers," following up on an earlier order in March seeking to establish English as the official language. Sikh advocacy groups protested the order, contending that it could have a "discriminatory impact on Sikh truck drivers and create unnecessary barriers to employment for qualified individuals."
Still, many Sikhs have aced English over the years, and combined with their entrepreneurial spirit, have graduated from entry-level drivers to owners, sometimes of large fleets. Among them are Gurmeet Malhi, of Primelink Express in California, a large transportation company, and Raman Dhillon, who is also founder and CEO of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association (NAPTA).
One of the more storied characters chronicled extensively in the regional media is Mintu Pandher, who has built a fleet of rigs and a truck stop (Akal Travel Center) in Laramie, Wyoming, including a gurdwara and a dhaba which is now a must-stop not just for truckers of all hues, but also locals.
But thousands of Indian truckers may be headed home and thousands more won't be coming to America anytime soon after the Trump administration on Thursday suspended issuance of worker visas for foreign commercial truck drivers following a fatal accident in which an undocumented Sikh truck driver from India who entered US illegally made an unlawful u-turn on a Florida highway, resulting in the death of three Americans.
The driver, identified as Harjinder Singh, later flunked English fluency and road sign tests, answering only two out of 12 questions correctly in English and identifying only one out of four highway signs shown to him, according to the US Department of Transportation. He was brought to Florida on Thursday to face vehicular homicide charges, and his brother Harneet Singh, who was a co-passenger in the truck and is also said to be undocumented, was also arrested.
The incident has triggered yet another political row between Democrat-run California, which gave Harjinder a driving license, and the Trump administration, which blamed the state's sanctuary policies for the accident and alleged foreign truck drivers were endangering American lives and jobs.
"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," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X in yet another immigration crackdown that was cheered by MAGA nativists.
Sikh advocacy groups estimate there are approximately 150,000 to 200,000 Sikhs working in the trucking industry, with around 90% (135,000 to 180,000) being drivers. They constitute about 18% of the total truck drivers in the US and up to 40% are based in California.
The entry of Punjabi Sikhs into the US trucking industry, which goes back decades, began ticking up in the 1980s due to the insurgency in Punjab, when asylum-seeking Sikhs hooked up with their forbears, among the first immigrants from India on the west coast, to hit the road in America. What was a trickle turned into a flood around 2018, attracted by the low barrier to entry, both at the Mexican border and in the industry, which at that time was also facing a driver shortage.
The nature of the job, which often involves long hours alone on the road, allowed for a high degree of personal and religious freedom to the mostly turban-wearing Sikhs. The handsome pay ($70,000 for beginners to $ 144,000 for owner operators), without the need for college degree or extensive qualifications attracted many, fueling illegal crossings at the Mexican border, a route than Harjinder Singh is reported to have taken.
There was another catch though: the lack of fluency in English and non-adherence to road signs, endemic in India, could be fatal -- as it turned out with Harjinder.
The White House flagged this issue in April this year when President Trump signed an executive order that sought to “ensure all commercial vehicle operators in the United States are proficient English speakers," following up on an earlier order in March seeking to establish English as the official language. Sikh advocacy groups protested the order, contending that it could have a "discriminatory impact on Sikh truck drivers and create unnecessary barriers to employment for qualified individuals."
Still, many Sikhs have aced English over the years, and combined with their entrepreneurial spirit, have graduated from entry-level drivers to owners, sometimes of large fleets. Among them are Gurmeet Malhi, of Primelink Express in California, a large transportation company, and Raman Dhillon, who is also founder and CEO of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association (NAPTA).
One of the more storied characters chronicled extensively in the regional media is Mintu Pandher, who has built a fleet of rigs and a truck stop (Akal Travel Center) in Laramie, Wyoming, including a gurdwara and a dhaba which is now a must-stop not just for truckers of all hues, but also locals.
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