Members of the public have 60 days to comment on a proposal from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, that would require immigrants applying for various immigration benefits to provide their social media handles to the agency.
USCIS says the change is happening in compliance with a recent executive order President Donald Trump says will protect the U.S. from terrorism and other national security threats.
Charles Kuck is an immigration lawyer and adjunct professor at Emory University School of Law. He says the U.S. State Department already asks for social media info when considering visa applications from abroad.
“State Department clearly does it because they’re abroad, so they’re looking for people who maybe seek to do it harm and are using it as a vetting tool. Immigration Service, of course, is inside the United States, people are here,” he said. “Many U.S. citizens who also are applicants for their spouses for example, or for their employees, they’ll be required to give their information. What is immigration going to do with that? That’s a question for which we have no answer right now.”
Kuck says the process could help root out issues like false marriages. But it’ll also likely bog down an already backlogged application process at USCIS — which has faced funding shortfalls and personnel shortages for years.
This is the second shift to come from USCIS in recent days. In late February, the agency also said certain undocumented immigrants — including some as young as 14 — would be required to register with fingerprints and other data, and could face civil or criminal charges.
Tucson immigration attorney Mo Goldman says major questions remain.
“But reading between the lines, and seeing what Kristi Noem is saying in the ad campaign they have out there about self deportation. They want people to just do the job for ICE,” he said. “Basically it’s trying to get people to self-report and, ultimately, individuals who are undocumented in the United States could be walking right into a deportation process.”
No actual process exists yet for that registration.
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