Cnn
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On Friday, the US State Department ordered all American embassies and consulates to “immediately start checking their verification” for anyone looking for a visa to go to Harvard University “at any other end”.
This decision is an important escalation of the Trump administration Feud with Ivy League Institution which is ready to have massive implications, because it applies to more than students.
“Additional verification” is made up of “a complete projection of the online presence” of candidates who wish to go to Harvard, who will serve as a pilot for an extended projection of social media and candidates for a verification visa in all areas.
“These candidates include, without limiting themselves, potential students, students, teachers, employees, entrepreneurs, guest speakers and tourists,” said the diplomatic cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and seen by CNN.
CNN reported on Wednesday that the State Department would begin to examine the visas affiliated with Harvard, but the cable provides more details on how it will be applied to those looking for the possibility of visiting, assisting or working at Harvard.
The cable notes that consular officers should determine, either in pre-deplery or in an interview, if the applicant seeks to go to Harvard, and that these candidates should be refused a visa “while waiting for the examination of their online presence”.
The words “everything” are underlined and in bold in the passage where the cable indicates that the screening applies to “everything” seeker of non -immigrant visa for “any” objective.
“As in all cases where an applicant does not provide certain information on request, consular agents should determine whether the lack of online presence or have social media accounts limited to` `private ” or with limited visibility, can reflect escape and question the credibility of the applicant,” the cable said.
The cable, reported for the first time By Reuters, orders consular agents to have candidates who are also eligible for a visa to fix their social media accounts to the public, then return their cases to the fraud prevention unit.
This unit “should perform a complete and in -depth verification of each of these candidates, including the activity of social media … and more generally any online presence, to identify possible inadmissibilities, information suggesting that the applicant intends to engage in incompatible activities with the classification of the visas sought or other information which could question the credibility of the applicant”, indicates the cable.
He tells consular officers that if they “are not personally and completely satisfied that the applicant, during his stay in the United States, will engage in activities in accordance with his non-immigrant visa status, you should refuse the visa”.
“The improved verification measures described in these councils aim to guarantee that consular officers can appropriately identify these visa candidates with history of harassment and anti -Semitic violence, and to duly consider the admissibility to visas under the American immigration law”, indicates that it was not the subject of violation of the Ministry of Internal Security.
Earlier this week, the State Department sent a separate cable suspending all new meetings on student visas while preparing the extended social media verification.
