Halt. Arrête. Fermo!
This is the message apparently being sent by the Trump administration to young foreigners wishing to obtain student visas in order to attend college or participate in exchange programs in the United States. According to a Tuesday report by Politico, Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently sent a cable to U.S. embassies and consulates across the globe instructing them to suspend visa appointments while the administration bolsters the current vetting process.
Unfortunately for some young people wishing to come to the U.S., the new, improved vetting process may including a careful vetting of each applicant's social media footprint. Here's what that Rubio cable allegedly said:
“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 (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued septel, which we anticipate in the coming days,” the cable states. (“Septel” is State Department shorthand for “separate telegram.”)
The more rigorous vetting requirements will be welcome news to many Americans who have been dismayed at the blatantly antisemitic rage-fests that have overtaken many college campuses since October 7. Many leaders of these "protests" have been unmasked as being foreign nationals who were in the U.S. on student visas. Mahmoud Khalil, a citizen of Algeria with ties to Lebanon and Syria, is currently in the custody of federal law enforcement officials for his role in pro-Hamas, anti-Israel rallies and building takeovers on the campus of Columbia University.
The visa types in question—F, M, and J—apply to foreigners who wish to enter the country seeking educational or employment opportunities.
- F Visa: For full-time academic students enrolled in U.S. institutions such as colleges, universities, seminaries, conservatories, high schools, or language training programs.
- M Visa: For students enrolled in vocational or other non-academic programs, excluding language training.
- J Visa: For individuals approved to participate in exchange visitor programs in the U.S., including categories such as au pairs, interns, scholars, teachers, and researchers.
It's not clear what the improved social media vetting process would look like, but it would presumably include checking accounts for not-so-subtle signs like the inclusion of watermelon and rat icons and, confoundingly, gay pride/pro-Hamas flags in the applicants' digital profiles. These images have become prideful symbols of the "from the river to the sea" crowd, and are—or should be!—obvious red flags on visa applications.
Trump Unloads on Harvard, Accuses Ivy League School of Educating Foreign Students on Your Dime
And it was just two months ago that Custom and Border Patrol agents sent a Lebanese doctor working at Brown University packing after they discovered her phone was full of videos and photos of Hezbollah militants. These are the kinds of people who should seek employment and education opportunities elsewhere.
The White House has yet to confirm Politico's reporting, but State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce did address the issue at her regular Tuesday press briefing. When asked by a reporter to confirm Rubio's instructions to halt student visas, Bruce was unapologetic about the efforts of the administration to apply stringent vetting to anyone wishing to temporarily or permanently make the U.S. their home.
BRUCE: What I can remind everyone of, which we've discussed for months here, is that we use every tool in our tool chest to vet anyone coming in who wants to come into this country and, in order to do so, has to apply for a visa to gain access to our nation. So, every sovereign country has a right to know who's trying to come in, why they want to come in, who they are, what they've been doing, and at least, hopefully within that framework, determine what they will be doing while they're here. So, that's nothing new. And we will continue to use every tool we can to assess who it is that's coming here, whether they are students or otherwise.
News of the latest move by the Trump administration comes hot on the heels of it pressuring Harvard University to come clean about how many of its students are foreigners and how much taxpayer money is going towards their tuition.
Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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