{"id":3176,"date":"2025-03-23T22:48:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T22:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=3176"},"modified":"2025-03-23T22:48:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T22:48:47","slug":"trump-demands-social-media-accounts-for-immigrants-in-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=3176","title":{"rendered":"Trump Demands Social Media Accounts for Immigrants in U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"has-underline\">President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/span> administration wants to force people in the U.S. applying for green cards or citizenship to fork over their social media handles, in a move with far-reaching implications as the government cracks down on pro-Palestine activists.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, which oversees naturalization and immigration, earlier this month proposed requesting social media names from people in the U.S. who apply for asylum, permanent residency, or naturalization, expanding a policy that used to only target people living abroad applying for visas.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal references Trump\u2019s day-one executive order laying the groundwork for a new Muslim travel ban, which also asked federal agencies to identify immigrants in the U.S. who hold \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/03\/12\/trump-new-muslim-ban\/\">hostile attitudes<\/a>\u201d toward the government.<\/p>\n<p><!-- BLOCK(pullquote)[0](%7B%22componentName%22%3A%22PULLQUOTE%22%2C%22entityType%22%3A%22SHORTCODE%22%2C%22optional%22%3Atrue%7D)(%7B%22pull%22%3A%22right%22%7D) --><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"stylized pull-right\" data-shortcode-type=\"pullquote\" data-pull=\"right\"><p><!-- CONTENT(pullquote)[0] -->\u201cThis policy would disparately impact Muslim and Arab applicants seeking U.S. citizenship.\u201d<!-- END-CONTENT(pullquote)[0] --><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!-- END-BLOCK(pullquote)[0] --><\/p>\n<p>The shift would affect an estimated 3.5 million people per year \u2014 some of whom have lived in the U.S. for decades.<\/p>\n<p>In light of Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/columbia-protests-immigration-detention-mahmoud-khalil-755774045e5e82849e3281e8ff72f26d\">ongoing detention<\/a>, one official from a Muslim civil rights group said the new policy poses special danger for critics of Israel and the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis policy would disparately impact Muslim and Arab applicants seeking U.S. citizenship that have voiced support for Palestinian human rights,\u201d said Robert McCaw, director of government affairs at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. \u201cCollecting the social media identifiers of any potential green card applicants or citizens is the means to silencing their lawful speech.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-hoovering-handles\"><strong>Hoovering Handles<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Collecting social media information, according to the USCIS proposal first posted March 5, is necessary \u201cfor the enhanced identity verification, vetting and national security screening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The proposal specifically cites Trump\u2019s January 20 executive order, which advocates have warned goes well beyond the Muslim travel ban from Trump\u2019s first term, which targeted people living abroad.<\/p>\n<p><!-- BLOCK(promote-post)[1](%7B%22componentName%22%3A%22PROMOTE_POST%22%2C%22entityType%22%3A%22SHORTCODE%22%2C%22optional%22%3Atrue%7D)(%7B%22slug%22%3A%22immigrants%22%2C%22crop%22%3A%22promo%22%7D) -->  <\/p>\n<aside class=\"promote-banner\">\n    <a class=\"promote-banner__link\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/collections\/the-war-on-immigrants\/\"><br \/>\n              <span class=\"promote-banner__image\"><br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"promote-banner__text\">\n<p class=\"promote-banner__eyebrow\">\n            Read Our Complete Coverage          <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>    <\/a><br \/>\n  <\/aside>\n<p><!-- END-BLOCK(promote-post)[1] --><\/p>\n<p>The new executive order <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/protecting-the-united-states-from-foreign-terrorists-and-othernational-security-and-public-safety-threats\/\">stated<\/a> that \u201cthe United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>USCIS said the social media handles it collects would be used to determine if people applying for a variety of immigration statuses pose a \u201csecurity or public-safety threat.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-chilling-effects\"><strong>Chilling Effects<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The policy proposal does not sketch out limits on how USCIS can use its newly acquired data, according to Saira Hussain, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Hussain said she was particularly concerned that the government might use artificial intelligence or other automated tools to punish speech it dislikes, pointing to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/03\/06\/state-department-ai-revoke-foreign-student-visas-hamas\">news report <\/a>that the State Department is using AI to revoke the visas of people who allegedly express \u201cpro-Hamas\u201d sentiments.<\/p>\n<p>Hussain said she feared a chilling effect, where people applying for a change in status refrain from speaking about potentially controversial issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnybody who is within the bounds of the United States has First Amendment rights,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Constitution applies whether you are somebody who is a citizen or somebody who is a green card holder who is here in the United States. I think that this administration is trying to chip away at that notion, but that is very much what First Amendment jurisprudence has been under the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CAIR\u2019s McCaw said he worried that the policy could be used to continue tracking people\u2019s activity on social media even after they become naturalized citizens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no clear sign on when this intrusion into our electronics and communications will end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The government is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.regulations.gov\/document\/USCIS-2025-0003-0001\/comment\">collecting comments<\/a> on the proposed policy until May 5.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/03\/23\/trump-immigrants-social-media-citizenship-green-card\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump\u2019s administration wants to force people in the U.S. applying for green cards or citizenship to fork over their social media handles, in a move with far-reaching implications as the government cracks down on pro-Palestine activists. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, which oversees naturalization and immigration, earlier this month proposed requesting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}