US President Donald Trump’s administration has resumed student visa appointments with enhanced social media vetting to identify hostile applicants towards the United States.
The June 18 cable, which was distributed to US missions on Wednesday, stated that US consular officers must now perform a “comprehensive and thorough vetting” of all applicants for student and exchange visitor status in order to identify those who “bear hostile attitudes toward our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.”
In response to the announcement on May 27 that the State Department would be expanding social media vetting of international students, the Trump administration directed its foreign missions to cease making new appointments for applicants for student and exchange visitor visas.
After a review was finished, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had stated that new guidelines would be made public about US student Visa.
Officers were instructed to search for “applicants who demonstrate a history of political activism, especially when it is associated with violence or with the views and activities described above, you must consider the likelihood they would continue such activity in the United States,” according to the June 18 cable that Rubio sent to all US diplomatic missions.
The consular officials were also permitted to request that the applicants make all of their social media accounts public, according to the cable, which was first reported by Free Press.
The cable stated, “Remind the applicant that limited access to online presence could be construed as an effort to evade or hide certain activity.”
