Trump officials to monitor immigrants’ social media for antisemitism

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that it will begin monitoring immigrants’ social media accounts for antisemitism, prompting some advocacy groups to push back and condemn the news as an “excuse to move a cruel, anti-immigrant, authoritarian agenda”.

In a statement on Wednesday, USCIS said that it will start “considering aliens’ antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests”.

The new guidelines will apply to individuals applying for permanent resident status, international students and aliens affiliated with “educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity”.

“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 Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs.

“Secretary [Kristi] Noem has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-Semitic violence and terrorism – think again. You are not welcome here,” McLaughlin added.

The latest announcement – which comes amid the Donald Trump administration’s growing crackdown on protesters demonstrating against Israel’s deadly war on Gaza – has prompted criticism from several advocacy organizations and progressive Jewish groups viewing the news as part of a campaign to repress legitimate speech under the guise of fighting hate.

In a statement on BlueSky, the Nexus Project, which fights antisemitism and defends free speech, condemned the announcement, saying: “Treating antisemitism as an imported problem does not fight antisemitism. Using politically malleable language like ‘terrorist sympathizer’ to go after immigrants does not fight antisemitism. Doing this while elevating antisemitism, as this administration is doing, does not fight antisemitism.”

Similarly, Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish organization, said: “The Trump administration will begin screening immigrants’ social media for “antisemitism. This will NOT fight antisemitism. This is simply using Jews as an excuse to move a cruel, anti-immigrant, authoritarian agenda. We refuse to be used this way.”

Since taking office in January, federal immigration authorities have detained numerous students – including green card holders – as well as abruptly revoked the visas of dozens of international students who secretary of state Marco Rubio have described as “lunatics”.

Among the anti-war students who have been detained is Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was arrested in front of his pregnant wife, Noor Abdalla, in early March.

Another scholar detained by immigration officials was Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University. The department of homeland security (DHS) accused him of having ties to Hamas, which he denies.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, who has been given the designation of a “special government employee” by the Trump administration, made back-to-back apparent fascist salutes during Trump’s inauguration rally earlier this year.

A few weeks later, during the Munich Security Conference, vice president JD Vance broke a taboo in German politics by meeting with Alice Weidel, leader of Germany’s far-right political party Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

Then earlier this month, during a Capitol Hill hearing that sought to explore supposed government censorship under Joe Biden, Republican representative Keith Self quoted Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister under Adolf Hitler.

“A direct quote from Joseph Goebbels [the Nazi propaganda minister]: ‘It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion,’ and I think that may be what we’re discussing here,” he said.