US to demand social media history from visa applicants

The United States State Department will soon publish new rules to require most visitors and immigrants to the U.S. to divulge their recent social media histories, carrying out one of the key security enhancements from President Trump’s extreme vetting executive order, The Washington Times has reported.

Travelers would also be asked to list phone numbers, email addresses and international travel during the previous five years, and to detail, any immigration problems they have had, whether with the U.S. or elsewhere. They also will be asked about potential family connections to terrorism.

In a striking move, would-be immigrants from countries where female genital mutilation is prevalent — mostly in Africa — would be directed to a website ensuring that they are aware the practice is largely illegal in the U.S.

The proposals are laid out in two documents slated to be published Friday, kicking off a comment period before the government finalizes the policies later this year.

“This upgrade to visa vetting is long-overdue, and it’s appropriate to apply it to everyone seeking entry because terrorism is a worldwide problem. The aim is to try to weed out people with radical or dangerous views,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies.

The Homeland Security Department had floated plans to track social media of immigrant applicants, but the State Department’s proposal would apply to tourists and others coming on temporary visas.

Some 14 million people would be affected by the request for information tied to visitors’ visas, and about 700,000 others would be affected in the immigration system, the department said in the documents.

Don Crocetti, a former senior fraud investigator for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said it makes sense to collect the information but that officers need to stay within privacy rules too.

He said in the immigration context, looking at social media can help an adjudicator assess whether the story the applicant is telling in applying for a benefit rings true — such as in the case of a marriage petition.