U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow is defending a new rule allowing for a person's "anti-American" views to be scrutinised when applying for a green card.

Washington

The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has defended a new rule that allows the agency to scrutinize applicants' 'anti-American' views as part of the green card application process. According to the director, this includes examining social media activity for evidence of support for terrorist ideologies or calls for violence against the United States, but he emphasized that such views are only one of several factors considered and that legally protected speech is not targeted.

Legal experts have raised concerns that the policy could be interpreted too broadly and potentially infringe on constitutionally protected speech. The administration has also expanded its review of what constitutes 'good moral character,' now considering both positive and negative factors, such as community ties and traffic infractions, in citizenship applications. The director maintains that these changes are intended to uphold the integrity of the U.S. immigration system.

Immigration director defends green card rule on ‘anti-American’ views

Welcome back to The Takeout, the head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services defending a new rule allowing for a person's, quote, anti-American views, unquote, to be scrutinized during an application process for a green card. Here is what he told CBS News earlier today. There has been such a large-scale espousing of foreign terrorist ideology, whether it's Hamas or another organization, that has been matched with a clear desire by these elements to trample on the rights of other people around them. But I want to make it clear, when we look at that, when we're looking at an application and we are doing a social media screen, that is a factor. It's not the deciding factor. It's not the only factor, but it is one factor that we want to make sure that we fully understand. But, yes, there are times when espousing terrorist ideology, espousing ideology that goes beyond just freedom of speech, when you actually cross into that threshold of potentially espousing violence against our country, against our way of life, overthrow of the government, it's something that we need to consider. It's something that Congress expects us to consider. So, sir, you are not talking about legally protected speech? Absolutely not. Camila Mankutoya Galvez joins us now. Walk us through what this means and what you gathered from that conversation. Well, Major, under this administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which historically has really been a benefits agency at its core, is taking on a more enforcement-minded role, placing a higher emphasis on the vetting and screening of legal immigrants, including on the so-called anti-American activities and views, which the director is defining as views and activities that promote terrorist activity or the overthrow of the U.S. government, for example. When he says potentially espousing violence, that seems kind of nebulous. And broad. And that is a concern that many legal experts have about how the administration is actually interpreting the—interpreting the statute on this question of anti-Americanism and— And sifting through what they see on social media. Correct. And the experts say that this could lead the agency to deny applications based on protected speech and speech that would be protected under the Constitution. The director is denying that possibility. But of course, the administration is also, for example, expanding the inquiry into what counts as good moral character. And that is one of the requirements to become a U.S. citizen. Typically, if you did not have a criminal record, you would satisfy that requirement to major. But now the administration is weighing positive and negative factors when making that determination. A positive factor, he told me, could be your ties to the community, any volunteer service, and your educational attainment. Negative factors, he said, could include habitual traffic infractions. So there's a broader inquiry now into whether or not you actually qualify for an immigration benefit. Some say it's too broad, but the director would argue that it's meant to promote the integrity of the U.S. immigration system. Bottom line, much more intense screening in this space. Yes.

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