The United States government announced on Thursday that it is analyzing more than 55 million people with valid visas for the US in search of violations that can lead to deportation, marking increasing repression against authorized foreigners to remain in the country.
In a written answer to a question from Associated Pressthe State Department said that “all US visa bearers, which may include tourists from many countries, are subject to continuous verification,” focusing on any indication that they can be ineligible to get permission to enter or stay in the United States.
If you find “violations of immigration rules”, the visa will be immediately revoked, and foreign citizen may be deported if they are on American soil-including those who are tourism in the United States.
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Since President Donald Trump took office, his government has focused on deporting illegal immigrants in the United States, as well as a student and exchange visas.
The new language of the State Department suggests that the continuous verification process, which authorities recognize to be time consuming, is much more widespread and may mean that even those approved to remain in the US may have their permissions abruptly revoked.
The department said it was looking for ineligibility indicators, including people who remain beyond the authorized period described in the visa, criminal activity, threats to public safety, involvement in any form of terrorist activity or support for a terrorist organization.
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“We analyze all available information as part of our verification, including police or immigration records or any other information surfaced after the visa issuing indicating a possible ineligibility,” the department said.
The government has increasingly tax restrictions and requirements to visa applicants, including the obligation to submit to face -to -face interviews. The review of all visa carriers seems to be a significant expansion of what was initially a process focused on students involved activities considered by the government as “pro-palestins” or “anti-Israel”.
Authorities state that revisions will include all social media accounts of visa holders, police and immigration records in their home countries, along with any violations that are subject to lawsuits of US law committed while they were in the United States.
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Reviews will include new tools for data collection of past, present and future visa applicants, including a complete scan of social media websites, made possible by new requirements introduced earlier this year.
These requirements make it mandatory that the privacy options on cell phones and other electronic devices or applications are deactivated when a applicant appears to an interview visa.
“As part of the Trump administration’s commitment to protect national security and US public security, since the inauguration day, the state department revoked more than double visas, and four times more visas as a student, than during the same period last year,” the state department said.
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The vast majority of foreigners who want to enter the US needs a visa, especially those who want to study or work for long periods. Exceptions for tourist or short -term business visits are citizens from 40 countries, mainly European and Asian, belonging to the visa exemption program, which gives these nationals a stay of up to three months without the need to request a visa.
But much of the world – including Brazil and populous countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Russia and most of Africa – not part of the program, which means that their citizens must request and receive visas to travel to the United States.
Earlier this week, the department reported that, since Trump returned to the White House, revoked more than 6,000 visas of a student for illegal permanence and violations of local, state and federal laws, the vast majority of which for assault, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and support for terrorism.
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The department also reported that about 4,000 of these 6,000 were due to real law offenses and that approximately 200 to 300 visas were revoked for terrorism -related reasons, including support for designated terrorist organizations or terrorist sponsors.
This week, the White House also announced that it will consider “anti -Americanism” as a criterion when analyzing visa requests.
The screening, according to Washington, will be done by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service at the time of new visas authorization analysis – including tourists. The criterion will also be applied to the granting or not of benefits for immigrants.
