United States: USCIS to Consider a Foreign National’s Support for Ideologies and Organizations Viewed as Anti-American When Adjudicating Certain Immigration Benefit Requests

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers are being directed to consider foreign nationals’ support for “anti-American” ideologies or organizations and an array of other new factors when adjudicating certain applications and petitions for immigration benefits, according to updated guidance revising the agency’s Policy Manual. The new guidelines come at the same time as the agency announces more in-depth scrutiny of applicants for U.S. naturalization.

The expanded list of factors now includes whether the foreign national “has endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused anti-American views or the views of a terrorist organization or group,” including organizations that “support or promote anti-American ideologies or activities, antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, [or] antisemitic ideologies.” The revised guidance adds that this would include foreign nationals who have “engaged in physical harassment of any person in furtherance of the organization or group.”

Engaging in such activities will be treated as an “overwhelmingly negative factor” in an adjudicator’s weighing of positive and negative factors when making discretionary adjudications. USCIS will consider social media postings by or involving the foreign national in identifying individuals who may fall within this group. In a related press release, the agency notes that it has expanded the types of benefit requests that receive social media vetting, and activity considered to be anti-American in nature will be one focus of that expanded vetting.

The updated guidance does not define the term “anti-American.” To assess whether organizations, views, activities, or ideologies would be considered anti-American, USCIS will look to longstanding statutory bars on naturalization relating to individuals and organizations that advocate world communism, totalitarianism, anarchist ideologies, the overthrow of the U.S. government, sabotage, assault and murder of U.S. government officials, and unlawful destruction of property. However, it is possible that adjudicators will apply their discretionary authority more broadly to other types of activity and other ideologies deemed to be anti-American.

In addition, the guidance states that adjudicators may also consider whether the foreign national violated the law in connection with their application for admission or parole into the United States. The guidance indicates that this would include individuals who entered on humanitarian parole programs that required a showing of financial support from a U.S. sponsor, where the financial support documentation contained false or fraudulent information.

These additional new factors are to be added to the many other factors that USCIS adjudicators have long considered in discretionary adjudications, including such factors as the foreign national’s conduct, family ties, employment and immigration history, any criminal history, and any public safety, national security, or humanitarian concerns. In immigration case types involving discretionary determinations, a USCIS adjudicator will generally approve the case if it meets the legal criteria for eligibility and the positive discretionary factors outweigh the negative factors.