India voices concern on US visas but sees alignment with Rubio
Why this matters: local context for readers following news across Pakistan and the region.
India voiced concern on Sunday over a US visa crackdown, striking a rare critical note even as it expressed broad alignment with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on other fractious issues. Paying his first visit to India, Rubio said the two democracies were on the same page on all major issues, brushing aside recent unease in New Delhi over trade, China and the Iran war. India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed that the two countries had a “convergence of national interests in many areas” but publicly took Rubio to task over US President Donald Trump’s assault on visas. Jaishankar said he “apprised Secretary Rubio of challenges that legitimate travellers face in respect of visa issuance”. “While we cooperate to deal with illegal and irregular mobility, our expectation is that legal mobility should not be adversely impacted as a consequence,” he said, noting that visas were key for US-India tech cooperation. Trump, who has made curbing non-Western immigration a key political priority, has ramped up restrictions and fees for H-1B visas used largely by Indian tech workers, sending applications tumbling. The Trump administration followed up on Friday by saying that applicants for permanent residency, even when in the United States legally, must leave for processing, likely splitting up many families for extended periods. Trump has been influenced by nativist critics who say Indian workers take away skilled jobs from Americans who would have earned more. Last month, Trump reposted a far-right commentator who described India as a “hellhole” and inaccurately alleged that Indian immigrants lack English proficiency. Asked about racist remarks in the United States about Indians, Rubio said, “every country in the world has stupid people”. “Our nation has been enriched by people who come to our country,” said Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. He said the immigration reforms were “not India-specific” but in response to a “migratory crisis” in the United States. Al