US to screen social media activity of wanna-be citizens for antisemitic behavior
US Immigration Services said it will begin screening the social media accounts of aliens for antisemitic activity, including permenant resident applicants and foreign students.
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US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Wednesday announced it will begin monitoring the social media accounts of all aliens for antisemitism, including permanent resident applicants and foreign students.
Effective immediately, the USCIS said it will start screening for antisemitic activity on social media accounts, along with any reports of physical harassment of Jewish individuals.
Both activities will be considered grounds for denying immigration benefit requests, the USCIS said.
Social media content falling under the new policy will include “endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other negative antisemitic activity.
“We will NOT tolerate terrorist sympathizers. To make America safe again, USCIS will consider aliens’ antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests,“ the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) branch posted on X.
We will NOT tolerate terrorist sympathizers. To make America safe again, USCIS will consider aliens’ antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests.
undefined USCIS (@USCIS) April 9, 2025
Learn more: https://t.co/jyopRVuSQH
Aliens applying for lawful permanent resident status, foreign students, and aliens affiliated with educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity will all be subjected to the new scrutiny.
First teased by the White House in March, the move is aligned with several executive orders on combating anti-semitism and foreign terrorist threats, already signed into law by President Trump upon taking office earlier this year. It also follows a tense few years of anti-Israeli/pro-Palestinian demonstrations since the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens triggered the War in Gaza.
Privacy rights advocates and human rights groups quickly denounced the new policy, arguing that it threatens free speech and unfairly singles out immigrants.
Calling the move a “formalizing the censorship practices” by the Trump administration, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) immediately responded to the announcement on X.
“By surveilling visa and green card holders and targeting them based on nothing more than their protected expression, the administration trades America’s commitment to free and open discourse for fear and silence,” the free speech advocates said.
"Unfortunately, that chill appears to be the administration’s aim,” FIRE said, promising to have more to say soon after fully reading the memo.
The Department of Homeland Security announced today it is formalizing the censorship practices it has engaged in for the past three months. By surveilling visa and green card holders and targeting them based on nothing more than their protected expression, the administration… pic.twitter.com/DQ6o3bMNMv
undefined FIRE (@TheFIREorg) April 9, 2025
The DOH said the new guidance will protect the US public from “extremists and terrorist aliens, including those who support antisemitic terrorism, violent antisemitic ideologies, and antisemitic terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, or Ansar Allah aka: ‘the Houthis.’”
“There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here,” said DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin.
“Anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for antisemitic violence and terrorism – think again. You are not welcome here,” McLaughlin said.