Rubio paused visa interviews final month whereas the State Division created guidelines for the social media screenings.
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The U.S. State Division is rolling out sweeping new guidelines for vetting pupil visa candidates utilizing their social media presence, in accordance with Politico.
The brand new course of will embody screening for “any indications of hostility in direction of the residents, tradition, authorities, establishments or founding rules of the US,” in accordance with an inner State Division cable.
Division officers may even search for posts that sign “advocacy for, help or assist for overseas terrorists and different threats to nationwide safety” and “assist for antisemitic harassment or violence,” particularly citing assist for Hamas—a cost generally levied in opposition to pupil protesters advocating for Palestinian rights—as grounds for rejection. The cable additionally directs officers to cull candidates who “reveal a historical past of political activism.”
The information comes a couple of weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio paused all pupil visa interviews in an effort to implement a brand new screening coverage specializing in college students’ on-line exercise. The Related Press reported that the division rescinded the pause, however candidates who don’t permit the federal government to evaluation their social media accounts may very well be rejected.
The cable is the Trump administration’s newest effort to curtail the circulation of worldwide college students to the U.S., as tens of hundreds of overseas college students await approval of their visas after months of delays and with solely weeks till the beginning of the autumn semester.
State Division spokespeople didn’t reply to an inventory of questions from Inside Greater Ed in time for publication.
