The US State Department Cable reveals that social media posts could lead to screening of visa applicants due to national security threats.
According to an internal cable from Reuters, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the State Department to review social media accounts of foreign US visa applicants who have visited the Gaza Strip over the past 18 years.
The cable covers all immigrant and non-immigrant US visas (including students and tourists) of those who have spent “any period of official or diplomatic capabilities” in Gaza after January 1, 2007.
Employees and volunteers from non-governmental organizations are also exposed to US screening.
If a social media review reveals “potentially mild information related to security issues,” then a US visa application will be submitted for an interagency investigation into whether the applicant can pose a national security risk, according to Cable.
The cable was signed by Rubio. Rubio previously told the media that his office had revoked more than 300 visas since the beginning of the year. The US Constitution includes student visa holders who criticized Israel’s war with Gaza despite protecting free speech for anyone in the United States regardless of their visa status.
The Trump administration previously said student actions pose a threat to US foreign policy. The president also fought against the university itself, which has been a major protest venue since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Trump’s latest fight is against Harvard University. The president has frozen more than $2 billion in federal funding to the university after rejecting policy changes requested by his administration.
These include abolishing positive behavior in the admissions process, screening students who may be “hospitable to American values and institutions,” and addressing anti-Semitism on campus.
Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security said Harvard University had hosted international students via its “radical ideology” and “may not be entitled to support rioters and faculty members who hold foreign visas.” [who] I spewed anti-Semitistic hatred.”
Source link
