Uscis Trump wants to review all social media accounts for potential citizens

The Trump administration may soon require social media accounts for people who are applying for green cards and American citizenship, asylum or refugee status. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) – Federal Agency that oversees legal immigration, He proposed the new policy In the federal registry this week-this information was described as “necessary for strict examination and examination” for all people who apply for “immigration benefits”.

In the notice of the Federal Registry, UScis said that the proposed social media control policy is necessary to comply with “protecting the United States from the United States from foreign terrorists and other national security threats and public safety” Executive orderHe was released on his first day in office. This requires from the Ministry of Internal Security (DHS) and other government agencies “defining all resources that can be used to ensure that all foreigners who seek to accept in the United States, or who are already in the United States, are examined and examined to the maximum.”

The public has until May 5 – 60 days of publishing the notification in the federal registry – to comment on the proposed policy.

According to the Federal Register notification, USics will start asking applicants for some immigration advantages to include their social media handles on their request models. Among those who will be affected by people who apply for green cards and naturalization; Resorters of asylum, refugees, and relatives of people who were granted asylum or refugee status. The proposed policy will affect more than 3.5 million people, according to private USCis estimates.

“One of the ways to look at this is mainly causing,” said Kathleen Bush Joseph, an analyst for the Immigration Program at the Immigration Institute at the Institute of Immigration. freedom. Bush Joseph, whose work is partially focused on efforts to modernize the immigration system in the United States, said the immigration system “does not reflect the truth of the twenty -first century in important ways.”

Bush Joseph said it will monitor whether the new social media policy, which is framing in a way that confirms national security and the need for an additional “examination” of immigrants, is part of the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict legal immigration. Trump I stopped resettlement of refugees indefinitely Through the executive order, and The temporary protected situation was canceled For Venezuelan and Haiti citizens. Project 2025, Heritage Foundation Playbook for Trump’s second termIt has developed a plan for the intense legal migration. But Bush Joseph added that it is too early to know whether the proposed social media monitoring plan for USCIS would be used to reject the requests of green cards, citizenship and refugee status.

Immigrant defenders definitely believe it. Catalyse/Citizens, a pro -immigration group, said the change will lead to a “digital platform weapon” against immigrants. “This is not a policy of migration – it is tyranny and non -democratic monitoring,” said the group’s biaries Lopez, the group’s executive, in an e -mail. “Trump turns online spaces into monitoring traps, where immigrants are forced to see every step and monitor their discourse or risk their future in this country. Today they are immigrants, the United States’ citizens are the ones who oppose and manage Trump.”

The organization’s social media organization exceeds the policy implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2019, which requires all applicants in the visa Disclosure of the history of social media for a period of five years. Unlike the new USCIS policy, the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs apply to foreign citizens who are applying for visas from outside the country – and not to migrants already in the United States who are looking to control their status.

Two documentary films makers Lay a lawsuit against the Trump administration On the social media policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2019, on the pretext that it violated the first amendment and was not necessary to protect national security interests. Requesting applicants in the visa to reveal their social media handles, complaint He claimed, “The government is easy to reach what is a live database of its personal, creative and political activities online.” Federal judge Refuse the case with bias In 2023, the Brennan Center and the First Persian Institute appealed the amendment – which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the directors – this ruling in early 2024, but social media policy is still ongoing.