The Trump administration is proposing a new policy that would require people applying for green cards, US citizenship, asylum, or refugee status to disclose their social media accounts to the government.
The Trump administration has proposed a new policy that would require prospective citizens and immigrants to disclose their social media accounts to the US government. The policy, proposed by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the Federal Register, would affect over 3.5 million people applying for various immigration benefits, including green cards, naturalization, asylum, and refugee status.
According to the Federal Register notice, the proposed social media surveillance policy is necessary to comply with President Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.” The order, issued on Trump’s first day in office, requires the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies to ensure that all immigrants seeking admission to the United States are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.
The public has a 60-day window, until May 5, to comment on the proposed policy after its publication in the Federal Register. The policy has been framed as an effort to modernize the immigration system and catch up with the realities of the twenty-first century. Supporters of the plan consider it a badly needed catchup, as those wishing the privilege of citizenship and other immigration statuses are likely to have a massive online footprint compared to people 20 years ago.
Catalyze/Citizens, a pro-immigration group, has criticized the proposed policy, with its executive director, Beatriz Lopez, stating, “This is not immigration policy—it is authoritarianism and undemocratic surveillance. Trump is turning online spaces into surveillance traps, where immigrants are forced to watch their every move and censor their speech or risk their futures in this country. Today it’s immigrants, tomorrow it’s U.S. citizens who dissent with Trump and his administration.”
The proposed USCIS policy goes beyond a similar policy implemented by the State Department in 2019, which required visa applicants to disclose five years’ worth of social media history. Unlike the new policy, the State Department’s efforts apply to foreign nationals applying for visas from outside the country, not to immigrants already in the US seeking to adjust their status.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
