The Trump administration is making a drastic change to how it decides which immigrants can receive certain benefits.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, is changing its policies so its employees are required to consider “circumstances where an alien has endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused the views of an anti-American or terrorist organization or group,” according to the document.
The document said those circumstances could include “antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, and antisemitic ideologies,” with no further specifics.
The change could impact millions of immigrants who are not citizens and deal with the agency, for issues including changing their immigration status or applying for a change of status. Consequences for expressing anti-Americanism or antisemitism could include a denial of whatever benefit the individual applied for, like a change of status, or a visa renewal.
“They’re saying that they can broadly use their discretion to deny people who have been involved in any kind of anti-American activity,” said Matt Cameron, a local immigration attorney.
“There’s no definition of antisemitism in the law,” he added. “We’ve seen with Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, that the definition of ‘antisemitic’ has been expanded to really anyone who opposes what Israel is doing in Gaza.”
Attorney Mahsa Khanbabai represents Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish Tufts doctoral student who was detained by ICE agents for co-authoring an op-ed urging her university to stop funding Israeli companies supporting the war in Gaza. She has since been released as she continues deportation proceedings.
“We’re waiting to see what further guidance the administration is going to be providing to its immigration officers as they try to decide what is anti-American or antisemitic in terms of adjudicating a person’s benefits application,” said Khanbabai, who is based in Massachusetts.
The limitations the Trump administration is imposing on immigrants’ First Amendment rights is playing out in court, but attorneys say this policy change is a new way to limit immigrants’ freedom of expression.
Khanbabai said the murkiness of the language could instill fear in immigrants’ daily lives.
“People are going to wonder, ‘Should I be a member of this club because could that be perceived as being anti-American or antisemitic?’ I’m even wondering if it’s going to impact people worrying about what they wear — if someone wears a keffiyeh — is that going to be considered antisemitic?” she said.
Local immigration attorney Jennifer Bade imagines a scenario where a client is in the United States on a visa and gets married.
“Say my client is trying to get a marriage-based green card. If we get to the USCIS interview stage for this couple, and the USCIS interviewing officer says something along the lines of, ‘What do you think about Palestine?’” she said.
As the Trump administration seeks to broaden the definition of “anti-American,” this policy change recalls another tumultuous time in history. It specifically cites a section of 1950s law that allows the government to exclude people suspected of supporting communism or totalitarianism, added during the McCarthyism era when Sen. Joseph McCarthy was launching investigations into alleged communists.
The policy change mentions “discretion” 29 times in a three-page document, a word that attorneys said is key.
Most immigrants can appeal a decision made by a USCIS officer, but in cases where “discretion” is used, experts say the burden of proof is higher. And Khanbabai said there could be pressure on immigration officials to make policy decisions that fall in line with the Trump administration’s agenda.
“It’s going to really come down to who is the USCIS officer, which is like Russian roulette,” said Bade. “Do you have someone nice? Or do you have someone that’s maybe inherently biased in some kind of way?”
