US to vet immigration applicants for ‘anti-Americanism’Kanishka Singh and Jack McQueenReutersThu, 21 August 2025 12:09PM
If you want to get into the US to work, study or live, you’d better have a clean slate when it comes to criticising aspects of American life.
President Donald Trump’s administration has said it will assess applicants for US work, study and immigration visas for “anti-Americanism” and count any such finding against them.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a “policy alert” that it gave immigration officers new guidance on how to exercise discretion in cases where foreign applicants “support or promote anti-American ideologies or activities” as well as “antisemitic terrorism.”
Trump has labelled a range of voices as anti-American, including historians and museums documenting US slavery and pro-Palestinian protesters opposing US ally Israel’s military assault on Gaza.
“Anti-American activity will be an overwhelmingly negative factor in any discretionary analysis,” USCIS said.
“America’s benefits should not be given to those who despise the country and promote anti-American ideologies.”
The announcement did not define anti-Americanism. But the policy manual refers to a section of federal law about prohibiting naturalisation of people “opposed to government or law, or who favour totalitarian forms of government.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said the step had echoes of the 1950s when Senator Joseph McCarthy hunted alleged communists in a campaign that became synonymous with political persecution.
“McCarthyism returns to immigration law,” he said. Anti-Americanism “has no prior precedent in immigration law and its definition is entirely up to the Trump admin.”
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