The State Department has ordered U.S. consulates and embassies to start screening the social media accounts of people applying for student visas for antisemitic posts, saying the move is a pilot program that could be expanded to the nation's colleges and universities.
In a cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and sent out Thursday night, consulate officers were told to "conduct a complete screening of the online presence of any nonimmigrant visa applicant seeking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose," Politico reported Friday.
The policy mainly affects students but also includes guest speakers, researchers, staff, faculty members, and more at the Ivy League university, which has remained under fire for several weeks from President Donald Trump and his administration.
According to the cable, obtained by Politico, the policy is to take effect immediately, and puts a proposal the administration made earlier this week to vet the social media accounts of all foreign students applying to colleges in the United States.
The State Department also said it wants the consular officials to consider whether some applicants lack a social media presence or have their accounts restricted to private views are keeping a low profile because they want to remain evasive.
The memo also instructed officials to inform applicants who keep their accounts private that they could be seen as evading scrutiny and request that they open their accounts while their case is vetted by the Fraud Prevention Unit.
While the cable identifies antisemitism as the focus of the investigations, it did not spell out what would be considered inadmissible.
The administration has made moves against Harvard over claims the school has failed to address antisemitism on campus after the Hamas invasion of Israel.
Harvard has already been stripped of billions of dollars in research funding and had its ability to enroll international students suspended before a federal judge blocked that decision.
On Wednesday, Rubio said the administration plans to "aggressively revoke" the visas of Chinese students who study in sensitive fields.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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