Extreme vetting is going social.
The White House has approved tougher vetting rules for visa applicants, including a questionnaire that asks for five years-worth of social media handles and e-mail addresses.
With the proliferation of terrorists learning their craft through extremist YouTube videos and terror related social media accounts, tougher vetting in the online realm has become an absolute necessity.
Via Fox News:
The Trump administration has approved a new questionnaire for U.S. visa applicants that asks for social media handles and accounts used during the last five years and travel history, including the source of funding for trips, over the last 15 years, for more “rigorous” vetting.
The State Department requested expedited consideration and “emergency review” from the Office of Management and Budget on May 5 for the new visa application protocol. Fox News can confirm that OMB has approved the new measures.
The State Department proposed new measures for U.S. visa applicants worldwide in order to “more rigorously” evaluate applicants for terrorism or other national security-related visa ineligibilities.
“We’re trying to have the best information possible from countries to identify the client and understand the background of people who want to do us harm,” a Department of Homeland Security official told Fox.
New questionnaire for visa applicants worldwide was rolled out asking for 15 years of social media handles/email addresses. pic.twitter.com/0yHddBFtSz
— ALT Immigration (@ALT_uscis) June 1, 2017
“Social media sites and applications have been propaganda multipliers, allowing them to connect with potential followers across countries, cultures and languages,” according to Rep. Michael McCaul, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Others, like Babak Yousefzadeh, a San Francisco attorney and president of the Iranian American Bar Association, claim such extreme vetting measures give the government too much “arbitrary power.”
The move is a key step in fighting ‘lone wolf’ terrorists who are bound together by an extremist ideology proliferating online.
For example, officials have linked the online videos and ideology of since deceased radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to at least 11 terror incidents between 2009 and 2016.
This latest move is yet another step the President has taken to help implement an extreme vetting process for those coming into our country.
Earlier this week, the White House filed a pair of emergency applications with the Supreme Court seeking to reinstate the President’s executive order temporarily banning travel from terrorist hotbeds.
Keeping Americans safe from terrorists has been a pillar of the administration. Social media vetting of visa applicants is the next logical step.
Do you think this is a wise move by President Trump and his administration? Share your thoughts below!
