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The Trump administration has reportedly ordered U.S. consular officers to apply heightened scrutiny to H-1B visa applicants and reject anyone found to have participated in “censorship or attempted censorship” of protected speech in the United States, according to an internal State Department cable.
Reuters reported that the directive, sent to all U.S. missions on Dec. 2, instructs consular officers to review resumes, LinkedIn profiles and any publicly available information to determine whether an applicant — or family members traveling with them — previously worked in areas including misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance or online safety.
According to the cable cited by Reuters, officers should “pursue a finding that the applicant is ineligible” if they uncover evidence the individual was “responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the United States.”
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New State Department policy adds speech-related roles, including fact-checking and content moderation, to the criteria for visa denial. (iStock)
While the directive applies to all visa categories, the cable calls for special scrutiny of H-1B applicants because they “frequently work in the technology sector, including in social media or financial services companies involved in the suppression of protected expression.” The vetting requirements apply to both new and repeat applicants.
Reuters also reported that the cable, not previously disclosed, instructs consular officers: “You must thoroughly explore their employment histories to ensure no participation in such activities.”
A senior State Department official told Fox News Channel’s Gillian Turner, “While we do not comment on allegedly leaked documents, make no mistake, the Administration has made clear that it defends Americans’ freedom of expression against foreigners who wish to censor them. We do not support aliens coming to the United States to work as censors muzzling Americans. In the past, the President himself was the victim of this kind of abuse when social media companies locked his accounts. He does not want other Americans to suffer this way. Allowing foreigners to lead this type of censorship would both insult and injure the American people.”
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The move comes as the administration intensifies its criticism of censorship in Europe. Vice President JD Vance responded on Dec. 4 to reports of a potential EU fine against X, posting on his official account: “Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship. The EU should be supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage.”
Further underscoring the administration’s determination to fight censorship, Undersecretary of State Sarah Rogers posted a video on X responding to a European member of parliament stating she was “revisiting some remarks for which people in Europe and also the U.K. have been investigated or arrested or jailed by their governments over the past few years,” and listed examples from Germany, the U.K. and Sweden.”
Illustrative H-1B visa application; the new screening rules target applicants who often work in the tech sector, including in content moderation and online safety roles.
She stated in part, “A German woman notoriously received a harsher jail sentence than a convicted rapist after the woman called the rapist ‘a disgraceful pig.”
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In May, Rubio threatened visa bans for people who censor speech by Americans, including on social media, and suggested the policy could target foreign officials regulating U.S. tech companies. (Reuters)
The administration has already tightened vetting procedures for student visas by instructing officers to screen applicants’ social-media activity for posts hostile to the United States. President Donald Trump also imposed new H-1B fees in September as part of a broader immigration overhaul. The enhanced censorship-related screening represents the latest step in the administration’s effort to tie U.S. visa policy to its free-speech agenda.
Fox News Channel’s Gillian Turner and Reuters contributed to this report.