New student visa interviews are temporarily paused, as State Department proposes social media screening system

Graphic by: Katie Easterson

Update on May 29:

The college’s International Education Center (IEC) is responding to the pause in interviews.

“We are in the process of developing a communication strategy for new students seeking visa appointments and continuing students interested in traveling over the upcoming summer break,” said Pressian Nicolov, Dean of the IEC. 

“The situation remains extremely fluid,” he said.

The State Department is temporarily halting all applicant interviews for new student visas. In effect, this impedes the process of issuing new student visas. The department issued the order to U.S. embassies and consulates.

The pause is implemented as the federal government considers an official social media screening policy for visa applicants, according to memos obtained by independent journalist Marisa Kabas as well as Politico. 

Until the policy is decided on, no new visa interviews are to be offered or scheduled, the documents state. However, the alleged document states, “appointments already scheduled can proceed under current guidelines.”

Once “further guidance is issued,” the alleged document reads, the interview process will reopen. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the pause at the White House on Tuesday, May 27. 

“When we identify lunatics like these, we take away their student visa. No one’s entitled to a student visa,” Rubio said on May 27. “The press covers student visas like they’re some sort of birthright. No, a student visa’s like me inviting you into my home. If you come into my home and put all kinds of crap on my couch, I’m gonna kick you out of my house.

“And so, that’s what we’re doing with our country, thanks to the president.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) already issued a directive on April 9 about the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) proposed review of social media content for antisemetic activity. The department will then use such material as a basis for denying immigration benefit requests, USCIS stated.

On May 28, Rubio additionally released a statement about ceasing visas for and U.S. admittance of “foreign nationals” who take “flagrant censorship actions against U.S. tech companies and U.S. citizens and residents.” In the release, Rubio credits Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act with the legal basis of the new policy. 

The act states the Secretary of State may forbid the admittance of or issuing of visas to immigrants, if they have “reasonable ground” to believe their entry would have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

The Santa Monica College (SMC) student body consists of about 20,000 full-time equivalent students. Fifteen percent of that group is non-resident: roughly 3,000 students. In April, ten F-1 visas at SMC were terminated, and later reinstated.

This is a developing story.