The State Department issued instructions to consulates and embassies late Thursday telling them to start the vetting immediately.
The State Department said the Harvard review process “will also serve as a pilot for expanded screening and vetting of visa applicants” and that “this pilot will be expanded over time.” | Scott Eisen/Getty Images
The State Department has told U.S. consulates and embassies to immediately begin reviewing the social media accounts of Harvard’s student visa applicants for antisemitism in what it called a pilot program that could be rolled out for colleges nationwide.
The cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, obtained by POLITICO, was sent late Thursday. It says consular officers should “conduct a complete screening of the online presence of any nonimmigrant visa applicant seeking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose.” The policy, while primarily affecting students, will also include faculty members, researchers, staff members and guest speakers at Harvard.
The policy will take effect immediately, per the cable. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The document puts into motion a proposal the Trump administration floated earlier this week for expanded social media vetting of all foreign students applying to U.S. colleges, pausing new appointments for student visa applicants in the meantime. Increased social media vetting did already exist, but it was previously primarily intended for returning students who may have participated in protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Notably, State Department leadership wants consular officers to consider “whether the lack of any online presence, or having social media accounts restricted to ‘private’ or with limited visibility, may be reflective of evasiveness and call into question the applicant’s credibility.” The cable also instructs consular officers to inform applicants with private social media accounts that they could be viewed as evading vetting and request they make their accounts public while the Fraud Prevention Unit reviews their case.
It also adds to the White House’s battle with elite academic institutions over alleged mishandling of cases of antisemitism during campus protests in response to Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip against militant group Hamas.
The cable specifically identifies antisemitism and antisemitic viewpoints as the focus for consular officers but does not spell out what specifically would rise to the level of inadmissible antisemitism in the eyes of State Department leadership. It says that the Harvard review process “will also serve as a pilot for expanded screening and vetting of visa applicants” and that “this pilot will be expanded over time,” indicating it will likely reach other universities in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.
The new guidance comes as the U.S. government continues its showdown with Harvard for alleged failures to address antisemitism on campus amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The federal government has stripped Harvard of billions in research funding and entered in dueling litigation with the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school. It had also suspended Harvard’s ability to enroll international students by briefly blocking visa applications before that decision was blocked by a federal judge.
It also comes as the administration has targeted other academic communities, including Chinese nationals studying at U.S. colleges and universities. Rubio said Wednesday the administration would “aggressively revoke” visas of Chinese nationals studying in sensitive fields, the potential implementation of which has flummoxed State Department officials.
