“The chilling effect on speech are heightened by the uncertainty,” an attorney for the plaintiffs said. “The list seems to expand unpredictably at the whims of the president or the administration.”
Three labor unions have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming that the federal government is now using social media posts, comments, and other interactions against visa-holders.
According to NBC News, the lawsuit was filed earlier this week in a New York federal court. It asks the judge to prohibit the Trump administrating from engaging in “viewpoint-based discrimination and surveillance.” The labor unions have also requested a court order directing the government to purge any and all surveillance records it has already obtained.
The White House, for its part, claims that it only uses social media against visa-holders and applicants when officials find content that is hostile, violent, or otherwise objectionable.
Critics of this policy have noted that, in recent months, some visitors to the United States have been turned back after being “caught” with political meme-type content on their phones.
In court documents, attorneys for the labor unions say that social media-related surveillance is broadly unlawful and could, in many cases, suppress dissent—and thereby infringe upon visa-holders’ First Amendment rights to free speech.
“They’re deploying a variety of automated and AI tools in order to scan and review speech online, at a mass scale that wouldn’t be possible with human review alone,” said Lisa Femia, a staff attorney with the Electric Frontier Foundation.
The labor unions are represented by the EFF, Muslim Advocates, and the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic, a student law clinic at Yale Law School.
The U.S. Department of State maintains that revoking or denying visas over what would otherwise constitute protected speech has a long precedent and firm legal basis.
“The Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that aliens do not have the same First Amendment rights as American citizens,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement. “The United States is under no obligation to allow foreign aliens to come to our country, commit acts of anti-America, pro-terrorist, and antisemitic hate, or incite violence. WE will continue to revoke the visas of those who put the safety of our citizens at risk.”
NBC News notes that the Supreme Court has repeatedly found that the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech applies to all foreign nationals currently in the United States.
The Trump administration, in contrast, contends that it can revoke visas if and when an alien “advocat[es] change by force and violence.”
EFF attorney Lisa Fernia observed that the White House has exercised significant discretion in defining threatening speech, seeking to revoke visas for content related topics ranging from the death of Charlie Kirk to Palestinian rights. In a January executive order, Trump directed the State Department to focus on “hostile attitudes toward citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.”
“The chilling effect on speech are heightened by the uncertainty,” Fernia said. “The list seems to expand unpredictably at the whims of the president or the administration.”
Sources
Trump Admin Sued Over Social Media ‘Surveillance’ of Visa Holders
Unions sue Trump administration over social media ‘surveillance’ program
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