&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Trump administration pauses student visa appointments for ‘expansion of social media screening’")
President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered US embassies to stop scheduling new appointments for student visas as it gears up to expand social media screenings for applicants.
According to a memo sent to diplomatic posts on Tuesday (May 27), Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered to halt the appointments for students and foreign exchange visas “until further guidance is issued”.
The state department memo directed the US embassies to remove any unfilled appointments for student visas, but go ahead with those that were already scheduled.
“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor … visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued [separate telegram], which we anticipate in the coming days,” read the cable, which was first reported by Politico.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday, “We take very seriously the process of vetting who it is that comes into the country, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
Last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would screen some applicants, including those seeking student visas, for “antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals.”
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Recently, the Trump administration has been in dispute with some of the country’s most elite, with the president accusing them of antisemitism on campus and upholding discriminatory admissions policies.
The administration has stopped hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to universities. Many students were deported, while thousands had their visas revoked. Many of these moves were blocked by US courts.
A week earlier, the DHS banned enrollment of international students at Harvard University. Following this, the Ivy League university filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, citing “blatant violation” of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem justified the move by saying Harvard was “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.”
