The Trump administration's heightened monitoring of immigrants' social media accounts seeking grounds to revoke their visas stifles the speech rights of both noncitizens and citizens alike, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) alleges in a new lawsuit.
In 2025, Trump administration officials-primarily at the Departments of State and Homeland Security-created a mass surveillance program to monitor constitutionally protected speech by noncitizens lawfully present in the U.S. Using AI and other automated technologies, the program has surveilled the social media accounts of visa holders and lawful permanent residents...
On Tuesday, the state department announced it was systematically identifying visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk, declaring in a social media statement that the United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans. The visa cancellations represent an escalating government-wide campaign to suppress criticism of Kirk, who was killed last month. The administration cut visas for nationals from Argentina, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Germany and Paraguay.
WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration has revoked the visas of six foreigners deemed by U.S. officials to have made derisive comments or made light of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month. The State Department said Tuesday it had determined they should lose their visas after reviewing their online social media posts and clips about Kirk, who was killed while speaking at a Utah college campus on Sept. 10.
During the trial, lawyers for the associations presented witnesses who testified that the Trump administration had launched a coordinated effort to target students and scholars who had criticized Israel or showed sympathy for Palestinians. Not since the McCarthy era have immigrants been the target of such intense repression for lawful political speech, Ramya Krishnan, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, told the court. The policy creates a cloud of fear over university communities, and it is at war with the First Amendment.
a visa "means you're a visitor to the United States" and "we are not in the business of inviting people to visit our country who are going to be involved in negative and destructive behavior."
We call upon the American administration to reverse its decision. This decision will only increase tension and escalation, Palestinian presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh told The Associated Press in Ramallah on Saturday. We have been in contact since yesterday with Arab and foreign countries, especially those directly concerned with this issue. This effort will continue around the clock, he said.
The Trump administration is reviewing the records of more than 55 million US visa holders for potential revocation or deportable violations of immigration rules, in a significant expansion of Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. The state department said that all of the foreigners who now hold valid US visas are subject to continuous vetting for any indication that they could be ineligible for the document, including those already admitted into the country.
This new program, called 'Catch and Revoke,' is alarming due to its implication on free speech and privacy for student visa holders and their American peers.
