Following the issuance of two executive orders in the early days of the second Trump administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 9, 2025 that it would begin considering “anti-Semitic activity” on social media as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests. Shortly thereafter, USCIS claimed also to have adopted social media vetting for “anti-Americanism,” greatly expanding the potential content that could act as a negative discretionary factor in immigration benefit applications. In August, USCIS updated its guidance on the use of discretion in the adjudication of certain immigration benefits.
However, the agency has failed to provide clear definitions of what these terms mean. USCIS adjudicates dozens of different types of benefit applications based on officers’ discretion. In publicly available materials, USCIS referenced a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act from 1952, which barred affiliations with communism or groups advocating violent overthrow of the government. Without clear guidelines available for the public to see, officers could deny important benefit applications based on subjective interpretations of these terms. Such implementation could lead to disparate outcomes for different applicants. Also, these policies have sparked concerns from students and academics who worry that their activities could be identified under these broad terms without clarity as to what they mean.
The information is critical to people applying for immigration benefits and their legal representatives, so that they can ascertain whether certain activities may make applications subject to these new factors.
Obtaining the records
On December 22, 2025 – The American Immigration Council and Just Futures Law filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with USCIS asking the agency to disclose policies, directives, training materials, standard operating procedures about the April 9, 2025 USCIS Social Media Screening Announcement, data on individuals who are subject to a social media search, and legal memoranda concerning the legal implications of denying immigration benefits based on their speech, beliefs, or associations.
March 27, 2026 – Council and Just Futures Law filed lawsuit in the District Court for the District of Columbia to compel USCIS to produce records responsive to their request.
