U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will now consider evidence of “anti-American” ideologies and activities as an “overwhelmingly negative factor” when reviewing immigration benefit applications.
The updated guidance, effective immediately and applicable to all pending and future benefit requests, directs USCIS officers to consider whether applicants have “endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused” views of terrorist organizations or anti-American ideologies when making discretionary decisions on applications for green cards, work permits, citizenship, and other immigration benefits.
The policy update specifically targets several categories of ideological concerns:
- Anti-American ideologies or activities
- Antisemitic terrorism and terrorist organizations
- Antisemitic ideologies
- Support for terrorist organizations or groups
USCIS has also broadened its social media vetting program to include reviews for anti-American content. Officers will now examine applicants’ online presence for evidence of support for prohibited ideologies, with such findings serving as heavily negative factors in discretionary analyses.
The new screening criteria relies on existing immigration law, particularly Section 313(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which includes provisions originally drafted during the Cold War era to exclude alleged communists and supporters of “totalitarian” governments. However, the policy does not provide specific definitions of what constitutes “anti-American” activity, leaving significant discretionary authority to individual officers.
