DHS insists: We screen social media

Department of Homeland Security officials are insisting that they do sometimes look at the social media accounts of immigrants and travelers headed to the United States after several reports have suggested otherwise. Yet the searches are only occasional, officials acknowledged, and social media is not routinely included in screenings of visa applicants coming to the US.

The DHS policy is upsetting lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who appear intent on making the searches mandatory. “It needs to not just be pilot programs. It needs to be a policy of our government to look at social media,” Rep Ted Lieu (D-CA) said in a House Oversight Committee hearing on Dec 16. Working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, the department has already completed two small pilot programs incorporating social media, the head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services told lawmakers. Now it’s working on a third pilot program, which “is in the process of being applied to literally thousands of applicants for immigration benefits,” agency Director León Rodriguez said. “So any thought that the Department of Homeland Security has simply foregone the use of social media for the purposes of immigration screening is a mistaken thought,” he insisted. “We have not spoken about it in great detail because the fact is that the more we speak about it, the more those who use it will cease to use it, knowing that we will be examining the content.”