US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration’s immigration restrictions are not aimed at India, describing them as part of a global effort to enforce American immigration law. He made the case during an official visit to India on October 20–21, 2026.
The US immigration curbs have drawn concern in India because they affect students and skilled workers. “From your perspective here in India, it may seem targeted at India, but it's not,” Rubio said.
He spoke with Shubhajit Roy, diplomatic editor at The Indian Express, during his second visit to India. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar invited him. Rubio had earlier visited New Delhi in May.
Rubio said Washington still wants people to visit, study, work and invest in the United States, provided they follow its laws. He argued the enforcement effort would make immigration programmes more sustainable.
“The biggest threat to legal immigration is illegal immigration. The biggest threat to legal immigration is mass migration”
He said the pattern was not specific to India, but more associated with other parts of the world. Rubio also described the system as neglected for years and said the administration was addressing alleged misuse of visa programmes.
Indian nationals dominate a major work-visa applicant pool
The administration’s position comes as Indian nationals account for a substantial share of applications in a key employment visa category. They made up 69.9 per cent of H-1B applicants in 2025, numbering 283,772, according to USCIS data cited by India Today.
The administration has also suspended eight tech giants from the Permanent Labour Certification programme, known as PERM. It is a step in the employer-sponsored Green Card process.
That suspension does not directly affect new H-1B applications. It has, however, raised concerns about longer-term career prospects for foreign professionals, especially Indians seeking US jobs.
Rubio said Indians are heavily represented in some categories because of the countries’ close ties and India’s developed economy. He also cited birth tourism as another practice the administration is trying to address.
The secretary alleged that 20 million people entered the United States unlawfully during Joe Biden's four-year presidency. He said the administration was trying to repair what he called “20 years of neglect” in a system that had not been enforced.
Consular training is also shifting visa-service appointments
A State Department spokesperson said the department had begun a worldwide training initiative on August 25, 2026. US embassies and consulates would adjust visa-service appointments to make room for the training.
The department said the training was intended to help consular officers identify applicants they considered likely to depend on public benefits. It also said officers would evaluate applicants “comprehensively and consistently.” The department did not provide a timeline or further details about the training.
A judge struck down a separate ban on immigrant visas
A federal judge later invalidated a separate policy that had paused immigrant-visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries. On August 21, 2026, Judge Jeannette Vargas of the Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled the policy “contrary to law” and beyond the secretary of state’s statutory authority.
The ban stopped permanent-residence visas for people joining family members or taking jobs in the United States. It did not cover tourist or student visas. The covered countries represented almost 40% of nations worldwide; the list included Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Haiti, Somalia and Russia, among others.
The State Department had drawn the list using Council of Economic Advisers data on countries where more than 30 percent of immigrant households received some form of public assistance. The policy directed officers to refuse applicants based on nationality, including people who could support themselves.
Vargas said the Immigration and Nationality Act requires officers to assess applicants individually and bars nationality-based visa decisions. A cable sent by Rubio to diplomatic and consular posts directed officers to refuse applicants even if they provided additional evidence to overcome a public-charge refusal. Vargas wrote: “The outcome is predetermined. The visa will be refused”.
The plaintiffs included six US citizens who said the policy blocked relatives in Ghana, Jamaica, Guatemala and Ethiopia from receiving visas. Five Colombians with job-based visa applications also sued. The judge gave both sides until September 11 to propose how to resolve the remaining case issues; the administration could appeal.
Trade, tariffs and security ties featured in Rubio’s wider message
Rubio said a trade agreement under negotiation for more than a year and a half was “incredibly close.” He said the two countries were “weeks, not months” from finalizing it and that “99% of the work is done.” He described the remaining disputes as questions of language and meaning.
The secretary also addressed US plans for tariffs of up to 100% on countries importing Russian oil and gas. President Donald Trump announced a waiver the previous week. Rubio said the tariffs were not intended to punish India, and said the decision to waive them reflected the risk of damaging an important relationship.
The measures, he said, were connected to the war between Russia and Ukraine, which Washington wanted to end. India-US relations had been “positive” during his nearly two years as secretary of state, Rubio said, pointing to the Quad as an example of “very strong cooperation.”
On Pakistan, he said Washington’s relationship with Islamabad would not come at India’s expense. On China, he rejected the word “soft” and described the administration’s approach as seeking strategic stability.
Rubio declined to detail the remaining trade disagreements. “I won't call them technicalities, but it's language related. It's basically down to what certain words mean and what certain phrases mean.”
