US Immigration Agency Proposes Social Media Vetting for Applicants

The policy would require green card, citizenship, and asylum applicants to disclose social media handles for enhanced security screening.

USCIS has proposed a new rule to collect social media identifiers from immigration applicants, citing national security concerns.
The policy is intended to comply with an executive order issued by Donald Trump on his first day in office, calling for stricter immigration vetting.
The proposal, published in the Federal Register, is open for public comment for 60 days before potential implementation.
If enacted, the rule would affect over 3.5 million applicants annually and add nearly 286,000 hours of additional USCIS workload without incurring extra public costs.
Critics argue the policy could infringe on privacy and free speech, with concerns about potential misuse or misinterpretation of social media activity.