visa

WASHINGTON — Foreigners who are allowed to come to the United States without a visa could soon be required to submit information about their social media, email accounts and extensive family history to the Department of Homeland Security before being approved for travel.

The notice published Wednesday in the Federal Register said Customs and Border Protection is proposing collecting five years worth of social media information from travelers from select countries who do not have to get visas to come to the U.S. The Trump administration has been stepping up monitoring of international travelers and immigrants.

The announcement refers to travelers from more than three dozen countries who take part in the Visa Waiver Program and submit their information to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, which automatically screens them and then approves them for travel to the U.S. Unlike visa applicants, they generally do not have to go into an embassy or consulate for an interview.

The Department of Homeland Security administers the program, which currently allows citizens of roughly 40 mostly European and Asian countries to travel to the U.S. for tourism or business for three months without visas.

The announcement also said that CBP would start requesting a list of other information, including telephone numbers the person has used over the last five years or email addresses used over the last decade. Also sought would be metadata from electronically submitted photos, as well as extensive information from the applicant’s family members, including their places of birth and their telephone numbers.

The application that people are now required to fill out to take part in ESTA asks a more limited set of questions such as parents’ names and current email address.

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed changes before they go into effect, the notice said.

CBP officials did not immediately respond to questions about the new rules.

The announcement did not say what the administration was looking for in the social media accounts or why it was asking for more information.

But the agency said it was complying with an executive order that Republican President Trump signed in January that called for more screening of people coming to the U.S. to prevent the entry of possible national security threats.

Travelers from countries that are not part of the Visa Waiver Program system are already required to submit their social media information, a policy that dates to the first Trump administration. The policy remained during Democratic President Biden’s administration.

But citizens from visa waiver countries were not obligated to do so.

Since January, the Trump administration has stepped up checks of immigrants and travelers, both those trying to enter the U.S. as well as those already in the country. Officials have tightened visa rules by requiring that applicants set all of their social media accounts to public so that they can be more easily scrutinized and checked for what authorities view as potential derogatory information. Refusing to set an account to public can be considered grounds for visa denial, according to guidelines provided by the State Department.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services now considers whether an applicant for benefits, such as a green card, “endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused” anti-American, terrorist or antisemitic views.

The heightened interest in social media screening has drawn concern from immigration and free speech advocates about what the Trump administration is looking for and whether the measures target people critical of the administration in an infringement of free speech rights.

Santana writes for the Associated Press.

BOSTON — A federal judge has allowed a Tufts University student from Turkey to resume research and teaching while she deals with the consequences of having her visa revoked by the Trump administration, leading to six weeks of detention.

The arrest of Rümeysa Öztürk, a doctoral student studying children’s relationship to social media, was among the first as the Trump administration began targeting foreign-born students and activists involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy. She had co-authored an op-ed criticizing her university’s response to Israel and the war in Gaza. Caught on video in March outside her Somerville residence, immigration enforcement officers took her away in an unmarked vehicle.

Öztürk has been out of a Louisiana immigrant detention center since May and back on the Tufts campus. But she’s been unable to teach or participate in research as part of her studies because of the termination of her record in the government’s database of foreign students studying temporarily in the United States.

In her ruling Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper wrote that Öztürk is likely to succeed on claims that the termination was “arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law and in violation of the First Amendment.”

Government argued that termination was legal

The government’s lawyers unsuccessfully argued that the Boston federal court lacked jurisdiction and that Öztürk’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System record, or SEVIS record, was terminated legally after her visa was revoked, making her eligible for removal proceedings.

“There’s no statute or regulation that’s been violated by the termination of the SEVIS record in this case,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Sauter said during a hearing last week. The Associated Press sent an email Tuesday seeking comment from Sauter on whether the government plans to appeal.

In a statement, Öztürk, who plans to graduate next year, said while she is grateful for the court’s decision, she feels “a great deal of grief” for the education she has been “arbitrarily denied as a scholar and a woman in my final year of doctoral studies.”

“I hope one day we can create a world where everyone uses education to learn, connect, civically engage and benefit others — rather than criminalize and punish those whose opinions differ from our own,” said Öztürk, who is still challenging her arrest and detention.

The then-30-year-old was one of four students who wrote the opinion piece in the campus newspaper. It criticized the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Öztürk, who is Muslim, was meeting friends in March for iftar, a meal that breaks a fast at sunset during the month of Ramadan, according to her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai. Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, her lawyers said. The government asserted that terminating her SEVIS record two hours after her arrest was a proper way of informing Tufts University about her visa revocation.

A State Department memo said Öztürk’s visa was revoked following an assessment that her actions “‘may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization’ including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.”

Öztürk running out of time to pursue teaching, research goals

Without her SEVIS status reinstated, Öztürk said she couldn’t qualify as a paid research assistant and couldn’t fully reintegrate into academic life at Tufts.

“We have a strange kind of legal gaslighting here, where the government claims it’s just a tinkering in a database, but this is really something that has a daily impact on Ms. Öztürk’s life,” her attorney, Adriana Lafaille of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said in court.

“We are running out of time to make this right. Each day that goes by is a day that she is being prevented from doing the work that she loves in the graduate program that she came here to be part of. Each day that this happens is a day that the government is allowed to continue to punish her for her protected speech.”

Öztürk, meanwhile, has maintained a full course load and fulfilled all requirements to maintain her lawful student status, which the government hasn’t terminated, her lawyer said.

Record created to collect information on international students

SEVIS is mandated by Congress in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 and administered by the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement “to collect information relating to nonimmigrant foreign students” and “use such information to carry out the enforcement functions of” ICE.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, when a SEVIS record is terminated, a student loses all on- and off-campus employment authorization and allows ICE agents to investigate to “confirm the departure of the student.”

Willingham and McCormack write for the Associated Press. McCormack reported from Concord, N.H.

South Korea and the United States on Friday officially launched a visa support desk at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to help Korean companies investing in America with smoother entry procedures, the foreign ministry said.

The rollout of the Korean Investment and Travel (KIT) Desk comes as Seoul and Washington work to clarify visa rules for Korean investors and their skilled employees, after the shocking detention and release of more than 300 Korean workers in an immigration sweep in Georgia exposed ambiguities in the U.S. work visa system.

The KIT Desk will allow subcontractors of major South Korean companies investing in America to apply for work visas for their employees through the prime contractors, including Samsung, SK, LG and Hanwha, a measure expected to expedite the visa issuance process.

Subcontracted workers previously had to apply for work visas on their own, and that has often resulted in delays or denials of entry into the U.S.

As for the case of B1 business visas, an annotation specifying the purpose of their U.S. visit and other details, like the name of the projects involved and the location of their workplace, will be attached to the ones issued to South Korean workers.

“This will also help minimize risks of denial of entry,” a foreign ministry official said.

Providing visa annotations for B1 holders of a specific country is considered an unprecedented step by U.S. authorities, and it is expected to help increase visa reliability and facilitate smoother entry for Korean workers.

The U.S. Embassy has released a visa fact sheet for Korean workers, outlining the scope of eligible business activities under the B1 visas and the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) visa waiver program for short-term stays.

Many of the workers who were arrested in the raid had come to the U.S. on either of the two visas. Korean companies have called for setting clearer visa criteria for work visa applicants.

The KIT Desk, which has been on a trial run since October, will operate on collaboration between relevant U.S. government agencies, including the State Department, the Department of Homeland and Security and the Customs and Border Protection.

The U.S. has added more staff to the KIT desk to exclusively handle visa-related matters.

South Korea’s diplomatic missions in the U.S. will work with U.S. customs authorities to ensure a smooth entry for Korean workers into Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta — regions with a strong South Korean business presence.

Going forward, Seoul plans to continue talks with Washington on improving the “fundamentals” of the U.S. work visa system concerning its citizens, including creating a fixed visa quota for highly skilled Koreans, the ministry said.

Second Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jina echoed the commitment during a visit to the KIT Desk on Friday for the official launch, where she was joined by acting U.S. Ambassador Kevin Kim.

The vice minister underscored the need to make the fundamental visa improvements in a way that “would contribute to rebuilding American manufacturing and creating jobs,” the ministry quoted her as saying.

The “Partner with Korea Act” has been introduced in the House to create an allotment of 15,000 E4 work visas for Korean nationals with specialized expertise. But the bill has made little progress amid negative sentiment over illegal immigration and the Trump administration’s stricter border controls.

The vice minister and acting ambassador agreed to continue working together to provide practical support for Korean companies’ investment in the U.S.

In a separate media note, the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said the KIT Desk will serve as a “central resource” providing investment and travel support to South Korean companies undertaking major investments in the U.S. and facilitating a smooth process for investment-related travel.

The embassy said it will work with Korea’s top investors into the U.S. to address business travel challenges, provide guidance on visa-related travel and promote clear communication regarding U.S. immigration requirements to support investment in America, in compliance with U.S. law.

“The U.S. Embassy will continue to meet with members of the business community to reaffirm the Embassy’s commitment to supporting Korean investment in the United States through the efforts of the KIT Desk,” it said.

The establishment of the KIT Desk underscores its commitment to encouraging Korean investment that “supports American reindustrialization, strengthens the U.S.-ROK Alliance and enhances shared prosperity,” the embassy added.

ROK is short for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.

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