U.S. says it is now monitoring immigrants' social media for antisemitism

[Demovictory9]

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/09/g-s1-59149/immigrants-social-media-antisemitism-dhs

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced it will begin screening immigrants' social media for evidence of antisemitic activity as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests. The screenings will affect people applying for permanent residence status as well as foreigners affiliated with educational institutions. The policy will go into effect immediately.

In a statement issued Wednesday morning, the Department of Homeland Security said it will "protect the homeland from extremists and terrorist aliens, including those who support antisemitic terrorism, violent antisemitic ideologies and antisemitic terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, or [the Houthis]."



"There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world's terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here," said DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin.

____

In a statement to NPR, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said: "The spirit of Joseph McCarthy is alive and well in the Trump administration, which has spent months dishonestly mischaracterizing legitimate criticism of the Israeli government's war crimes in Gaza as antisemitic, pursuing witch hunts into American colleges, and threatening the free speech rights of immigrants."

"It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live & study in the United States of America," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X last month. "When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked and you should not be in this country."

[Lovie777]

1. WOW.................

brown and black people immigrant or not are being spied on.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. And if you think it's going to stop with immigrants...well.....

[Demovictory9]

3. Probably will be added for federal jobs

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. Hiring managers routinely look at social media accounts when hiring and have for years.

[madville]

11. Yep, very common practice

A family member of mine is President of a large company, their IT department does a full social media screening of their potential new hires. He says they turn up all kinds of stuff, racism, pornography, illegal drug use, etc. In some cases it makes them not make an employment offer, in others they will require the new employee to delete questionable content from their social media accounts if they want the job.

[madville]

12. It already is for security clearances

Background investigators can and do check publicly available social media activity.

[Diraven]

4. What they're really going to do

Is call any support for Palestinians antisemitism. That what they did for that Tufts university student.

[Demovictory9]

5. A Jewish org person discussed how this doesnt help Jews..

I think her reasoning is that it puts this new authoritarian, anti free speech on the backs of Jewish people ...

And it's part of a plot by the Heritage folks

[allegorical oracle]

9. Agree. Also kinda, sorta sniffs of a hypocritical right-wing version of DEI. nt

[tanyev]

6. And if they don't find anything that meets their definition of antisemitic, but lots of anti-Trump stuff??

[Crunchy Frog]

7. Not Elon's though. His Xitter is a cesspool of it,

so he's at least massively enabling it.

[Jit423]

10. Anti-Semitism by whose definition? nt