United States pauses the issuance of students visas to evaluate social networks

The administration of Donald Trump has temporarily suspended the issuance of student visas while preparing to implement a new policy that includes a greater review of the social networks of the applicants, as reported on Tuesday the Political Portal.

The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, sent a diplomatic cable to the American consulates in which he orders “immediate effect” not to program new appointments to request student or exchange visas (categories f, m and j) until “new guidelines are issued”, which, it estimates, will happen “in the next few days”.

The Trump administration had already introduced certain requirements to monitor the activity in social networks, but mainly focused on students who already had a visa and participated in the proportions registered in various universities of the country against the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

According to Politico, the cable «does not specify directly» what type of activity will be evaluated on social networks. For example, it is not clear whether to publish a photo of a Palestinian flag in an X account could motivate additional scrutiny.

Asked about it, the spokeswoman for the State Department, Tammy Bruce, told a press conference that the government will use «all the tools» at their disposal to investigate those who try to enter the United States.

«Each country has the right to know who tries to enter and what that person has done. It’s nothing new,» he said.

The Trump government has put several universities, which it accuses of being progressive or even anti -Semitic, especially Harvard, which aims to withdraw all federal funds and has forbidden to accept foreign students.

As part of its restrictive immigration policy, the State Department has canceled thousands of visas, including those of hundreds of students who participated in proportions. EFE