On a recent weekend, the US Embassy in India issued a statement making clear that visa assessment is an ongoing process and doesn’t come to a halt once a visa is awarded to an individual. This echo the embassy’s previous statement made on June 19, where it was emphasized that obtaining a US visa should be seen as ‘a privilege, and not a right’. This policy mirrors the stricter immigration stance taken up by the administration of US President Donald Trump, where a granted visa can still be rescinded if its bearer fails to abide by the US laws, with the subsequent action being deportation.
The embassy stated, ‘We regularly scrutinize visa holders to confirm they are in compliance with all US laws and immigration regulations—if they fail to do so, we hold the right to annul their visas and remove them from the country.’ This rigorous inspection by the Trump administration is not confined just to those aspiring to settle in the US, but also extends to the currently settled immigrants, referred to as ‘aliens’ in formal dispatches.
Such immigrants experience continuous legal challenges from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit in Washington. This escalation in the strictness of immigration policies and regulations led to the eruption of protests against ICE in different regions of Los Angeles last month. The intensity of the protests accelerated when the military and Marine forces were brought into action.
Up until the present day, protests of different scales are being witnessed throughout the country. Not long ago, precisely on June 26, there was another development when the US authority made it obligatory for all visa seekers to disclose their activity on every online platform they have been using for the previous five years.
According to a released statement, ‘Visa applicants must disclose their social media usernames or handles corresponding to every platform they have utilized in the last 5 years as part of the visa application process. The applicants are obligated to confirm that the details in their visa applications are accurate and complete prior to submission’.
This action was taken after the US State Department expressed that consular officers would stay vigilant for posts, messages, or affiliations that could potentially indicate anti-US sentiments or connections to blacklisted organizations that might signify ‘hostility toward the US’, its governance, cultural fabric, foundations, or its institutional apparatus.
In the interest of ‘national security’, the embassy cautioned applicants that noncompliance or maintaining their social media profiles as private could result in their visa applications being directly declined.