The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday it would begin screening the social media accounts of migrants applying for permanent resident status, as well as foreign students and aliens affiliated with academic institutions, for “antisemitic activity” to determine if those individuals qualify for benefit consideration.
“Today U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin considering aliens’ antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests,” the DHS said in a statement.
Officials said they will specifically target people who support militant groups including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Houthis, “to protect the homeland from extremists and terrorist aliens.”
The Trump administration has taken a hardline on immigration since coming to power in January, particularly with regard to higher education.
A judge is expected to rule on Friday whether Columbia University grad student Mahmoud Khalil should be released from detention, where he’s been held since being taken into custody on March 8 for participating in pro-Palestinian protests. Federal officials were ordered to provide evidence supporting his proposed deportation by Wednesday, even though Khalil is legally in the U.S.
Nearly 300 international students, including around 50 in New York State, have been denied permission stay in the United States in recent days. Many of those pupils have been unsure why their student visas were abruptly revoked.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, in which the U.S. is a member, established a working definition of antisemitism in 2016 that’s consistent with guidelines the U.S. State Department set in 2010.
It defines antisemitism in part as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred” through speech, writing, visual forms or actions targeted Jewish people and/or their property, as well as Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.
