‘No one has the right to…’: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stresses that visas are not a ‘privilege’

Following the secretary’s remarks, the U.S. State Department reiterated that visas are not a guaranteed right and may be revoked if foreign visitors act contrary to U.S. national interests Marco Rubio During a visit to Hungary.In a video shared by the department, Rubio said he had made this point multiple times and wanted to clarify it again. “I’ve said it many times. I don’t know why it’s so hard for some people to understand,” he said. “No one has a right to a visa,” he added. Trump’s top aides were speaking in Budapest on Monday during a bilateral visit that included a joint news conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Rubio explained that a visa is essentially a permit to enter the United States. “A visa is permission to enter our country as a visitor,” he said. He added that if someone enters the country as a visitor, whether as a student, tourist, journalist or any other capacity, and then engages in activities that are “contrary to the national interest, national security of the United States,” we will cancel your visa. Rubio also said that if officials had known about such activity in advance, they might not have issued the visas in the first place.The State Department’s warning comes amid a push by the U.S. government to treat visas as conditional and revocable under current law. The department stressed that consular officials around the world often deny visas for a variety of reasons, including concerns about overstaying or criminal conduct.Rubio has made similar arguments in the past, telling lawmakers that visas are a privilege, not a right, and taking a hard-line anti-immigration stance saying there is no constitutional right to a visa.