Immigration

On March 5, 2025, The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a 60-day notice period on a proposal to collect the social media accounts and the identifiers or “handles” on immigration forms to comply with section 2 of the Executive Order (E.O.), “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.”

The E.O. directs the implementation of uniform vetting standards and requires the collection of all information necessary for a rigorous vetting and screening of all grounds of inadmissibility or bases for the denial of immigration-related benefits. USCIS indicates that the data collection will be used to help validate an applicant’s identity and determine whether a grant of a benefit poses a security or public-safety threat to the United States.

Next Steps

The public will have 60 days to comment on the proposal. Comments are encouraged and will be accepted by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) until May 5, 2025. Once comments are received, USCIS and DHS will review and analyze the feedback to determine whether the proposal will proceed as a “final rule” within the Federal Register.

Potential Impact

If DHS and USCIS proceed with the final rule after the notice and comment period, then new immigration forms will be created and published which will likely include a separate section for beneficiaries to list social media handles and the platforms for which these handles are associated. According to the proposal, passwords to the accounts will not be requested. As a result, DHS and USCIS will only be able to access public profiles with the handles provided on the immigration forms.

Prior Review of Social Media

During the first Trump Administration, in May 2019, the Department of State updated the online immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applications, Forms DS-260 and DS-160, to include questions regarding the applicant’s social medial accounts requesting handles and the associated platforms similar to what is proposed now by USCIS and DHS. In 2019, the change was in response to President Trump’s March 6, 2017, Memorandum for the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security and Section 5 of Executive Order 13780, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.”

Based upon the prior changes made during the first Trump Administration related to social media and the second Administration’s continued interest in “extreme vetting” the proposal is likely to be published as a final rule.

Conclusion

Pryor Cashman LLP is monitoring all developments regarding the proposal. Should you have any questions, please reach out to your immigration contact at our firm.

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Partner Erica Allegretta was a contributing author to this client alert.