India raises concerns over US visa and immigration policies with Rubio

INdia on lord's day raised its concerns o'er the ruff governing body’s recent changes in visa and in-migration policies with visiting US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who acknowledged that there will be “some bumps in [the] road” as Washington puts in place a reformed and modernised immigration system.Just ahead of Rubio’s arrival in India on Saturday, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced changes in its rules that make it mandatory for foreigners in the US wanting a green card to leave and apply in their home country. Though the immigration agency subsequently softened its position, the move is expected to hit a large number of Indian professionals.India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar said at a joint news conference with Rubio that he informed the US secretary of state of the “challenges that legitimate travellers face in respect of visa issuance”, especially since people-to-people ties are at the heart of India-US relations. He added, “While we cooperate to deal with illegal and irregular mobility, our expectation is that legal mobility would not be adversely impacted. After all, this is very relevant to our business, technology and research cooperation.”He was speaking after talks with Rubio aimed at resetting bilateral relations following months of unprecedented strains over the Trump administration’s trade and tariff policies. Changes to US visa and immigration policies have also emerged as an irritant in bilateral ties. Indian workers make up 71% of all approved H-1B visa applications, and many have been caught in decades-old backlogs for the EB-2 and EB-3 employment-based green card categories.Rubio acknowledged that the changes in US policy “may be having a disproportionate impact” on India, which provides many highly skilled workers, and said the system itself is not “targeted at India”.“The modernisation of our migration system into the US is not focused on India specifically, it is global,” he said. “We’ve had a migratory crisis in the US. This is not because of India but broadly, we had over 20 million people illegally enter the US over the last few years and we’ve had to address that challenge.”The US, Rubio contended, is still the “most welcoming country in the world on immigration” but is making a “long overdue” adjustment to its immigration policies to bring them in line with the “realities of the modern times”.“But we’re in a period of transition, and like any period of transition, there’s going to be some bumps on that road, but we think ultimately our destination is going to be a better system, a more efficient system, one that works better than the one that we had in place,” he said.The new system may prove to be more beneficial than the previous one for “people from India that seek to enter the US to work and innovate” and there is going to be a “period of adjustment along the way”, Rubio said.Rubio responded to a question on racist comments against India and Indian Americans emanating from the US by saying: “I’m sure that there are people that have made comments online and other places, because every country in the world has stupid people.“I’m sure if there are stupid people here, there are stupid people in the US that make dumb comments all the time. I don’t know what else to tell you other than the US is a very welcoming country. Our nation has been enriched by people who come to our country from all over the world, and have become Americans and assimilated into our way of life and have contributed greatly.”