Passengers from an international flight enter customs and immigration control at McCarran International Airport (now known as Harry Reid International Airport) in 2011. The Department of Homeland Security is proposing collecting social media information from tourists visiting the U.S. from countries that don’t require a visa.
Julie Jacobson/AP
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Julie Jacobson/AP
The Trump administration is proposing new rules that would further tighten its grip on who’s allowed into the U.S., asking visitors from several dozen countries that benefit from visa-free travel to hand over their social media history and other personal information.
The new conditions were unveiled in a notice from the Department of Homeland Security earlier this week and are open for public comment and review for 60 days before going into effect.
The proposed measure applies to citizens from the 42 countries that belong to the visa waiver program and currently don’t require visas for tourist or business visits to the U.S. Those foreign citizens would now have to submit five years’ worth of their social media activity to be considered for entry.
They’d also have to provide emails they have used for the past 10 years, as well as phone numbers and home addresses of immediate family members. Officials would also be able to scrutinize IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the mandatory social media requirement is designed to comply with President Trump’s January executive order “to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.” However, they have not defined what type of online activity may constitute a threat.
Under the current visa waiver program, tourists can bypass the visa application process, which can take months to years. Instead, they pay $40 and submit an online application using the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA. It’s accessible to citizens of U.S. allied countries, including Australia, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. But that system may also get an overhaul if the latest changes take effect. The notice proposes eliminating online applications, moving to a mobile-only platform.
This is the latest step in the Trump administration’s escalation of restrictions and surveillance of international travelers, foreign students and immigrants. In June, the State Department announced it will begin reviewing the social media accounts of foreign students. Earlier this month, the department instructed its staff to reject visa applications — primarily H-1B — from people who worked on fact-checking, content moderation or other activities, citing it as “censorship” of Americans’ speech.
These latest proposed changes are not that different from those already in place for visa applicants, Marissa Montes, a professor at Loyola Law School, and director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic, told NPR.
“It’s always been something that the government can ask for and has asked for in the past,” Montes said. “The question is, how will [ESTA applicants] be screened by CPB? Will it be something they have to submit ahead of time or will it be an officer at a point of entry? We still don’t know how the administration expects to implement this.”
In the past, she said, such screenings occurred at the point of entry and that “it’s always been discretionary if the officer wants to ask for it or not.”
What is most troubling, Montes added, is that there are no explicit guidelines defining what qualifies as harmful to the United States.
“The problem is that when it comes to immigration policy and directives like this is that it’s very broad and discretionary, meaning that the agent that is receiving this order has a lot of discretion to then interpret what can be viewed as anti-American,” she said. “But we have seen that be interpreted as anything that goes against the Trump administration or is going against a value of the Trump administration.”
Montes said she advises her clients to be mindful of not just their own online posts, but also posts they’ve liked, commented on and re-posted, which can be grounds for a denial or even a permanent ban from the U.S. For example, if someone has posts regarding casual drug use, or pictures of firearms, they can be viewed as a potential threat to the government. She said agents are also on the look out for posts that can be construed as pro-socialist or communist.
She cautions people not to eliminate their social media presence entirely, saying it’s “become a red flag” for officials.
“Our immigration laws bar certain types of conduct because of immigration bias … so you really have to be careful about what you put out there,” she warned. “As I always tell my clients, if I can find the information, the government certainly can.”
