A Jewish-led progressive advocacy group was among those expressing horror Wednesday at a new policy unveiled by the Trump administration as part of what it claims is a wide-scale effort to protect Jewish people from antisemitism, but which critics warn is itself antisemitic.
The decision by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to begin considering immigrants' "antisemitic activity on social media," said Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, is actually an example of the administration "using Jews as an excuse to move a cruel, anti-immigrant, authoritarian agenda."
"This will NOT fight antisemitism," said the group. "We refuse to be used this way."
DHS said that effective immediately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin screening immigrants' social media activity for what the administration views as expressions of antisemitism, including "endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity." The agency's findings could be seen "as a negative factor in any USCIS discretionary analysis when adjudicating immigration benefit requests," such as green card or visa applications, it said.
The agency cited President Donald Trump's executive orders that he says are aimed at "combating antisemitism"—which have also been used to round up international students, deny them due process, and threaten them with deportation for speaking out for Palestinian rights.
DHS did not specify what views expressed on social media could be used against an immigrant applying for benefits, but its approach to the State Department's "catch and revoke" program targeting international students who have called for their schools to divest from Israel suggests the agency won't simply be looking for immigrants who threaten the safety of Jewish people.
"This move by DHS will chill online expression for people in the United States and abroad alike."
In recent weeks the Trump administration has revoked the visas of hundreds of international students and immigration agents have detained Palestinian rights advocates including Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk. One DHS official explicitly conflated Khalil's involvement in pro-Palestinian protests with terrorism in explaining why he should be deported, and Secretary of State Marci Rubio suggested Ozturk had created "a ruckus" by writing an op-ed calling on her school, Tufts University, to divest from companies that benefit from Israel's assault on Gaza.
Kate Ruane, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said that in addition to "targeting people based on nothing more than their First Amendment-protected expression," it will likely used "error-prone automated tools" to detect what it views as antisemitic activity.
"These tools are guaranteed to improperly categorize an unknown number of applicants as violent, terroristic, or antisemitic, even by the administration's broad definitions of those terms," said Ruane. "Given the U.S. government's demonstrated willingness to strip people's legal status for engaging in constitutionally protected speech it dislikes, this move by DHS will chill online expression for people in the United States and abroad alike."
Writer Dan Berger said the administration is "cynically claiming to be fighting antisemitism" despite being "the most openly antisemitic U.S. administration in living history."
Elon Musk, who was chosen by Trump to lead efforts to slash public spending at the Department of Government Efficiency, provoked shock from rights groups—but shrugs from the Republican Party and a leading pro-Israel organization—when he displayed what appeared to be a Nazi salute at an inauguration event in January. He has also promoted Germany's far-right party, Alternative for Germany, which has promoted Nazi slogans, and minimized the Holocaust at a rally for the group.
"Dark, abysmal stuff, and a pox on everyone whose defense of genocide made this possible," said Berger.
Jezebel reporter Kylie Cheung also pointed to politicians on both sides of the aisle, such as former President Joe Biden, who have vehemently supported Israel's assault on Gaza and accused those who speak out against it of antisemitism.
DHS's social media policy, said Cheung, "is the natural conclusion of every politician, Democrat and Republican, broadly smearing anti-genocide protesters as antisemitic terrorist sympathizers for the last two years."