No visas or residence permits to those who post anti-Semitic content: US
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Washington: The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will deny visas or residence permits to individuals who post anti-Semitic content online, according to NDTV.
USCIS, an agency of the Homeland Security Department, said it would deny immigration benefits on the grounds of involvement in ‘antisemitic activity on social media and the ‘physical harassment’of Jewish individuals.
The agency stated that the policy would be made effective immediately applying it to student visas and permanent resident ‘green cards’ to stay in the country.
The social media activity supporting groups including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis come under ‘anti-Semitic’ activities.
‘USCIS will consider social media content that indicates an alien endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity as a negative factor in any USCIS discretionary analysis when adjudicating immigration benefit requests,’ the agency reportedly said.
DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin made it clear that there was ‘no room’ for the ‘rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers’ in the US, adding that ‘We are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here’.
President Donald Trump, since taking office in January, has deported hundreds of undocumented foreigners including Indians.
Trump administration revoked several visas alongside warning universities of cutting federal funds in the event of pro-Palestinian protests in the campuses.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month said that visas some of 300 people were revoked, claiming that the administration was doing it on a daily basis.
The Trump administration has recently deported high profile pro-Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil for leading protests at Columbia University in New York last year.
Khalil, a citizen of Algeria, entered the US on a student visa in 2022.
