Washington Expands Immigration Audits to Pursue 'Anti-American Sentiments'

The U.S. authorities announced a new package of measures that tighten the scrutiny of immigration, study, and work applications, focusing on what it described as the detection of 'anti-American' attitudes or activities, including reviewing the social media accounts of applicants.

According to the policy update issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), immigration officials will have to scrutinize any affiliations with 'anti-American or terrorist' organizations, as well as look for evidence of anti-Semitic activities. This comes as an extension of the measures enacted by the Trump administration in 2019, expanding the scope to include anything that could be classified as 'anti-American activity'.

Agency spokesperson Matthew Tragesser stated, 'Privileges should not be granted to those who despise the country and promote ideologies that are hostile to it.' He emphasized that the goal is to apply the highest levels of scrutiny and examination.

However, notably, the update did not provide a clear definition of the phrase 'anti-American sentiments', merely referring to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which excludes from U.S. citizenship categories such as members of communist parties or those advocating for the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.

The decision has sparked widespread controversy among immigration experts, who warned of the vagueness of the term and the broad powers it may grant to authorities. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a researcher at the American Immigration Council, wrote that 'the concept has no legal precedent and recalls the McCarthy era of the 1950s', while attorney Stephen Brown considered that 'American values are a loose standard that has no existence in immigration law'.

The announcement comes after the State Department canceled more than 6,000 student visas this year, as part of a broader trend to tighten immigration policy, raising concerns about a potential decline in immigrants and international students coming to the United States.