US visa applicants to go through social media scrutiny over Gaza conflict
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has apparently made it official that the visa applicants who spent some time in the Gaza strip would have to go through a thorough social media scrutiny.
The directives have not been issued officially by the White House, however, renowned media outlet Reuters has seen the cable issued by the administration in this regard.
The internal State Department cable dated April 17 was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and directs both immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants who have been in Gaza since January 1, 2007, to go through a detailed screening of their social media activity.
The directives would also affect the visa processing of even the NGO workers, diplomats, and others who visited the violence-torn area in any official or personal capacity.
The directives have been issued to all US diplomatic and consular posts globally, cautioning that if derogatory information related to national security concerns emerges during the scrutiny, a Security Advisory Opinion (SAO) must be initiated which would then prompt a comprehensive inter-agency review to examine whether the visa applicant poses a threat to US interests or not.
The move comes amid administration’s spree of directives to tighten visa policies; however, the Gaza-related scrutiny is one of its kind.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently admitted that over 300 visas have already been revoked under provisions of a 1952 law; the revocations also affected students enrolled in top universities of the US.
The visa revocation of students has made headlines globally and a Columbia university student named Mahmoud Khalil was also ordered to deport; the judge hearing his case also endorsed Trump’s deportation orders leaving him with no option than to leave the country.
The State Department, White House or Oval Office has not commented on the cable though looking at the administration’s recent policies, immigration experts are in no shock.
Trump’s aggressive policies regarding visa scrutiny especially related to Gaza-related posts can also be seen from his threats to freeze federal funding for top universities including Harvard University if they fail to provide record of some students involved in protests.
Thousands of students took to streets and university campuses in the US after the recent Palestine-Israel conflict broke out. The protests subsided and Biden administration did not take any punitive action against the students though Trump administration is now going after the students involved in those demonstration which were peaceful.
