US says to deny visas, green cards over social media posts

WASHINGTON: US immigration authorities said on Wednesday they will look at social media accounts and deny visas or residence permits to people who post content considered anti-Semitic by President Donald Trump's administration.

Posts defined as anti-Semitic will include social media activity in support of militant groups classified by the United States as terrorists, including Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Huthi insurgents.

The move comes after the Trump administration has controversially canceled visas for students inside the United States, where the First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-Semitic violence and terrorism -- think again. You are not welcome here,” department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services “will consider social media content that indicates an alien endorsing, espousing, promoting or supporting anti-Semitic terrorism, anti-Semitic terrorist organizations or other anti-Semitic activity as a negative factor” in determining benefits, the statement said.

The policy will take effect immediately and apply to student visas and requests for permanent resident “green cards” to stay in the United States.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late last month that he has stripped visas for some 300 people and was doing so on a daily basis.

Rubio said that non-US citizens do not have the same rights as Americans and that it was at his discretion, not that of judges, to issue or deny visas.

A number of people stripped of visas contend that they never voiced antipathy for Jews, with some saying that they were targeted because they found themselves in the same place as protests. The most high-profile deportation case is Mahmoud Khalil, who led protests at Columbia University in New York. He was also taken to Louisiana ahead of deportation proceedings, despite being a US permanent resident.

The Trump administration has also stripped millions of dollars worth of federal funding to leading universities, with officials saying they did not respond properly to combat anti-Semitism during protests that erupted over the Gaza conflict.