The State Department prepares to increase social media screening for student visas
The State Department plans to step up efforts to review and screen social media for international students and those applying for exchange visitor visas so that applicants do not pose national security threats to the United States, Fox News Digital learned.
To do this, the Department of State has temporarily suspended new student and exchange visitor visa interviews when assessing enhanced social media screening in the application process.
The effort is the latest initiative from the Trump administration to crack down on immigration among those attending US academic institutions. Palestine faces an increase in scrutinyand Secretary of State Marco Rubio In May, the administration said it was considering visa status for students who participated in the pro-Palestinian protests.
The Trump administration has denounced students who participated in these protests in support of Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
The State Department is currently investigating “will be publishing guidance on expanded social media reviews for all such applicants based on their reviews” based on screening and reviewing students and exchange visa applications, according to a Tuesday email obtained by Fox News Digital.
Trump administrators will step up national security overhaul weeks after the waltz departure
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that the administration was considering visa status for students who participated in the pro-Palestinian protests. (Jose Luis Magana/Applications)
As a result, the State Department has “instructed the Consuls department to suspend the ability to book visas for students or exchange visitors until further guidance is issued in preparation for the expansion of required social media screening and screening,” the email said.
“The next step is a post to assess operations and processes in preparation for this expanded social media review of all students and exchange visitors (F, M, J) visa applicants,” the email said.
“An already scheduled appointments can proceed under current guidelines,” the email said. “However, any available plans that are not available at the time of release of this cable should be removed from availability immediately.”
Rubio fights back after Senator Dem says he regrets voting for him and regrets the nervous exchange
The Department of State said: “In preparation for the expansion of required social media screening and screening, the email said, it has directed the consul department to suspend the addition of visa booking capabilities for students or exchange visitors until further guidance is issued. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency)
Rather than specifying what additional steps will be involved in the more stringent social media screening process, the email says it has been instructed to refer certain student and exchange visitor visa applicants to the fraud prevention unit for “forced social media checks.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital about existing social media policies being aimed at applicants.
Meanwhile, Rubio told lawmakers on May 20 that he hopes the State Department has already withdrawn thousands of visas since January, following the president. Donald Trump’s Inauguration ceremony. That has risen from the 300 when the administration was revoked in late March.
Rubio also said his agency continues to take students’ visas and is not a right, and that it is a “privilege.”
“I don’t know the latest counts, but there’s probably more to do,” Rubio told lawmakers about the Senate Budget Committee subcommittee, which oversees foreign affairs. “We are here as guests and are trying to cancel visas for those who are disrupting our higher education facilities.”
Meanwhile, Democrats said the Trump administration’s efforts to cancel the visa are a violation of the legitimate process.
“I think that’s a fundamental attack on freedom, because the legitimate process is the guardian of the gates to ensure that governments don’t take away people’s lives and freedom, and if they take visas without a due process, then freedom happens.”
Student visas allow people outside the US to study in academia for a specific period of time within the country. In contrast, the green card can already remain in the country in the United States, which is not a US citizen.
Democrats said the Trump administration’s efforts to cancel the visa are a violation of the legitimate process. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
The State Department’s efforts coincided with the executive order that Trump signed in January to protect the United States from foreign terrorists and other national security threats, and the order aimed at combating anti-Semitism, a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital.
Click here to get the Fox News app
One of the executive orders directs the Department of State, Homeland Security, the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence to review and maximize the maximum possible review of all aliens that are recognized, enrolled or already in the United States, particularly those that come from an area or country with identified security risks.
Additionally, other executive orders state that the United States will “prosecute, remove, or otherwise retain it to account for the perpetrators of illegal anti-Semitic harassment and violence using available and appropriate legal tools.”