On April 9, 2025, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it “will begin considering aliens’ antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests” (USCIS News Release). The new policy screening social media for antisemitism “will immediately affect aliens applying for lawful permanent resident status, foreign students and aliens affiliated with educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity.”
The news release offers some clues regarding how the policy will be implemented. The USCIS will screen social media for “content that indicates endorsing, espousing, prompting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity…” Regarding “antisemitic terrorist organizations,” the statement listed as examples “Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, or Ansar Allah aka: ‘The Houthis'” (this list almost certainly not exhaustive). USCIS will view any such social media content “as a negative factor in any USCIS discretionary analysis when adjudicating immigration benefit requests.” The new policy is effective “immediately” which indicates that pre-existing social media posts will be considered. While the policy applies broadly, the USCIS’s decision to specifically highlight “foreign students” and “aliens affiliated with educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity” suggest that student visa applicants and holders and aliens otherwise working with certain educational institutions may be subject to higher scrutiny from the screening social media for antisemitism policy.
