Immigration<\/p>\n
Immigration politics<\/p>\n
National security<\/p>\n
Terrorism<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n Facebook<\/p>\n Tweet<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n People applying to live or work in the United States will now be screened for \u201canti-Americanism,\u201d including having their social media checked, authorities announced on Tuesday, in a tightening of restrictions that has alarmed immigration advocates and lawyers.\n <\/p>\n \n Immigration officers will be able to look at whether <\/strong>applicants have had \u201cany involvement in anti-American or terrorist organizations,\u201d or whether there is any \u201cevidence of antisemitic activity,\u201d said the policy update<\/a> by US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS).\n <\/p>\n \n Social media vetting, already introduced into immigration screening in June by the Trump administration, will be expanded to include searches for any \u201canti-American activity,\u201d it said.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s the latest step in the administration\u2019s crackdown on immigration regulations, with many new actions likely to deter immigrants and international students from coming to the US.\n <\/p>\n \n The State Department has revoked more than 6,000 student visas<\/a> this year, an official said on Monday. And in June, the State Department said embassies and consulates must vet student visa applicants for \u201chostile attitudes towards our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAmerica\u2019s benefits should not be given to those who despise the country and promote anti-American ideologies,\u201d said USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser in a news release<\/a> on Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n \n He added that the immigration agency was \u201ccommitted to implementing policies and procedures that root out anti-Americanism and supporting the enforcement of rigorous screening and vetting measures to the fullest extent possible.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The policy update did not give a specific definition for \u201canti-Americanism,\u201d only saying this included those who supported \u201cantisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, and antisemitic ideologies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n But it pointed<\/a> to a section of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) for examples of \u201canti-American\u201d ideologies. The section in the Act,<\/a> the US\u2019 overarching legal framework for immigration, bans certain people from becoming naturalized citizens \u2013 including members of various Communist parties, those who advocate for \u201cworld communism,\u201d those who write or distribute materials opposing \u201call organized government,\u201d or those who wish to overthrow the US government by force or violence.\n <\/p>\n \n The announcement immediately stoked confusion and alarm, with online forums debating what counted as \u201canti-American.\u201d Many worried that the vague wording and lack of clear definition would give immigration officers the power to crack down further on immigration, regardless of a genuine threat.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIs being against the recent strike in Iran or being in favor of a cease fire in Gaza anti-American or antisemitic?\u201d read one Reddit post<\/a> in an immigration discussion. \u201cWhat if you personally don\u2019t like Trump as a President or you shared a post on the recent South Park episodes making fun of him (and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi) Noem?\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Immigration experts and lawyers are worried, too.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe term (anti-Americanism) has no prior precedent in immigration law and its definition is entirely up to the Trump (administration),\u201d said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick,<\/a> a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, in a post on X.\n <\/p>\n \n He added that the move was reminiscent of McCarthyism \u2013 the period of the 1950s also known as the Red Scare, when authorities prosecuted left-wing individuals amid a widespread public panic over communism and its influence on American institutions.\n <\/p>\n \n Steven Brown, an immigration attorney based in Houston, also posted on X<\/a> that so-called American values were \u201ca subjective standard not found in the INA.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cFor me, the really big story is they are opening the door for stereotypes and prejudice and implicit bias to take the wheel in these decisions. That\u2019s really worrisome,\u201d said Jane Lilly Lopez, associate professor of sociology at Brigham Young University, according to the Associated Press.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt means you are going to just do a whole lot more work to provide evidence that you meet our standards,\u201d Lopez said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Immigration Immigration politics National security Terrorism See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link People applying to live or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-359017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115060255237197899","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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