The agency managing visa and citizenship applications wants to collect information on all applicants’ social media accounts in the name of national security.
A 60-day public-comment period opened Wednesday for the change to application forms, which the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) told Newsweek will help it comply with one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on border security.
“Are USCIS staff going to be maintained at the same level or will they also experience cutbacks and how will that affect their ability to be adjudicating these applications?” Kathleen Bush-Joseph, policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said to Newsweek.
“Then getting into the specifics of the social media profiles, I’m not certain about how immigration attorneys will be advising their clients about filling out these forms and what kind of information people may or may not be providing in response. What is actually considered social media and how many different platforms there are, there are a lot of unknowns here.”
Why It Matters
While illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border and former President Joe Biden‘s policies dominated the immigration debate during the presidential election, strengthening checks on legal immigrants fits with Trump’s message of tougher border security.
Gathering more personal information on immigrants could be crucial in identifying national security risks, but civil rights experts are warning that a misinterpretation of a post could lead to detention or denial of an application.
What To Know
As part of his sweeping executive orders on January 20, Trump ordered stricter vetting of immigrants entering the U.S. under “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.”
The order calls for the collection of all information necessary for USCIS staff in determining whether the agency should approve an application. That includes social media identifiers, or handles.
Some people applying for visas from outside the U.S. are already asked for information on their social media presence, on apps like Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter. Officers then check these profiles for any signs of criminal or terrorist activity. This does not apply to applicants from all backgrounds.
Under the USCIS proposal, this vetting would now be applied to those already in the U.S. seeking permanent residency—a green card—or citizenship.
“This data will be collected from certain populations of individuals on applications for immigration-related benefits and is necessary for the enhanced identity verification, vetting and national security screening, and inspection conducted by USCIS and required under the E.O. [executive order],” the agency’s proposal reads.
The agency estimates the change would apply to upward of 2.5 million immigrants applying across nine different form types, which would result in an extra 285,999 hours of work per year to its staff’s workload.
Pertaining to the current process for those applying outside the U.S., applicants have been warned by experts to be wary of what they post on social media while attempting to obtain visas. Concerns have also been raised around privacy and freedom of speech.
A USCIS spokesperson told Newsweek that reviewing social media accounts would strengthen fraud detection and ensure applicants were not a threat to public safety or national security.
What People Are Saying
Kathleen Bush-Joseph, policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, told Newsweek: “These forms that people are filling out for these various benefit applications are extremely comprehensive and ask a number of detailed questions which often require the assistance of an attorney to fill out and many of those questions are used to determine who is not eligible for a benefit because of derogatory information, so I think to the extent that people are posting things that raise concerns, it’s not clear what the criteria for determining what a concern is.”
President Donald Trump’s executive order on January 20:Â “To protect Americans, the United States must be vigilant during the visa-issuance process to ensure that those aliens approved for admission into the United States do not intend to harm Americans or our national interests. More importantly, the United States must identify them before their admission or entry into the United States. And the United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.”
Saira Hussain, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Newsweek: “These are people who could have been residing in the U.S. for 30, 40 years, as a Green Card holder who are seeking citizenship, or people who are residing on other types of visas who are seeking a Green Card. It really creates a massive chilling effect about people who could be vetted for their online speech who have every right to be here in this country and could be chilled from sharing their opinions because they are concerned they are going to be vetted and denied immigration benefits such as naturalization.”
Immigration law firm Siri Glimstad, in a post around social media vetting in 2024:Â “While monitoring social media remains a point of debate, the U.S. government aims to leverage all available public information sources as part of its mission to uphold national interests through the immigration process. Being mindful of your social footprint is just one aspect of presenting your complete and honest background to facilitate approval.”
What Happens Next
USCIS is inviting public comment on the proposal for 60 days before implementation. It said that no additional costs will be incurred for adding social media profiles to its vetting procedures.
Update 3/5/25, 4:13 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Saira Hussain.
