The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, defended the policy of denying or revoking visas to individuals whose actions —he stated— affect the national interests or the national security of the country, and emphasized that a visa “is not a right,” but rather a permit for “visitors.”
In statements during a press conference, Rubio stated that from the outset this line was a directive received from the president and is part of what, according to him, motivated his electoral campaign.
From that point, he explained that the visa process sometimes involves denying visas to individuals “due to the activities they have engaged in abroad.”
Rubio added that, in other cases, these are individuals who already have a visa but are in the United States engaging in activities "contrary to our national interests."
In those situations, he stated that the law grants them the right and —according to his interpretation— even “the obligation” to expel those individuals from the country, and he assured that they will continue to do so: “It’s as simple as that,” he said.
As an example, he pointed out the case of someone who arrives with the intention of studying, but once in the United States “becomes involved in criminal activities”; in that scenario, he stated: “We are going to expel them from the country.”
He also mentioned, in general terms, that other categories of visitors could exist — for example, researchers — and emphasized that the key point is that the visa corresponds to a visitor's status.
The head of U.S. diplomacy emphasized that visas are denied every day in embassies around the world: individuals go to consular interviews, and the visa can be rejected due to information in their file or anything that comes up during the interview, “whatever it may be.”
Based on that reasoning, he argued that if the government has the authority to deny a visa before granting it, “without a doubt” it also has the power to revoke it once granted if the person “does something they shouldn't do.”
Rubio concluded that there are "various reasons" for denying visas, but that — according to his explanation — all of them are related to the impact those cases would have in some way on the national interests or national security of the United States.
This Friday, the United States government announced the immediate suspension of the Diversity Visa Lottery Program (DV1), after it was confirmed that the shooter at Brown University, identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, had entered the country in 2017 through that program.
"Under my direction, I have instructed the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to pause the DV1 program to ensure that no other American is harmed by this disastrous program," stated Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem.
According to the authorities, Neves Valente arrived in the United States in 2017 with a diversity immigrant visa that allowed him to obtain permanent residency.
With the suspension announced by Trump, thousands of applicants worldwide, including many Cubans, will see their hopes of legally emigrating to the United States affected.
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