USA to deny Green Cards for anti-Israel views

https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-894121

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-reportedly-denying-green-cards-over-anti-israel-social-media-posts/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/us/politics/trump-green-cards-scrutiny.html

US to deny green card applicants over anti-Israel political opinions

DHS officers are now being referred to as "homeland defenders" in job postings, calling candidates to "Protect your homeland and defend your culture."

The United States has altered its restrictions toward potential immigrants, allowing their green card applications to be denied for expressing anti-Israel political opinions, The New York Times reported, after reviewing new training materials given to Department of Homeland Security immigration officers.

The Times noted that these officers are now being referred to as "homeland defenders" in job postings, with one calling candidates to "Protect your homeland and defend your culture."

The training materials describe candidates "endorsing, promoting or supporting anti-American views" or "antisemitic terrorism, ideologies or groups," and tell officers to view such factors as "overwhelmingly negative."

Demonstrators sit in an encampment as they protest in solidarity with Pro-Palestinian organizers on the Columbia University campus, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in New York City, US. April 19, 2024. (credit: CAITLIN OCHS/REUTERS)

Anti-Israel posts used as examples of antisemitism

Among the examples of antisemitism provided in the training materials are anti-Israel social media posts, such as one reading "Stop Israeli Terror in Palestine" with the Israeli flag crossed out, one with the map of Israel with the country's name replaced with the word "Palestine," and a post suggesting that Israelis should “taste what people in Gaza are tasting.”

Immigration officers were also told to “focus particularly on aliens who engaged in on-campus anti-American and antisemitic activities.”

Additionally, all cases that do involve "potential anti-American and/or antisemitic conduct or ideology" must be elevated to their managers and the agency’s general counsel’s office.

Other behaviors the materials describe as negative, the Times reported, were showing support for "subversive" ideologies, such as by “holding a sign advocating overthrow of the US government,” or burning a US flag.

https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-894121

Immigration agents told to look out for support for ‘antisemitic terrorism, ideologies or groups,’ or participation in anti-Israel campus protests.

New training materials tell immigration officers to vet applicants for “endorsing, promoting or supporting anti-American views” or “antisemitic terrorism, ideologies or groups.” Desecrating the American flag is another example of such activity.

Officers are instructed to view such activity as “overwhelmingly negative,” and to refer cases involving “potential anti-American and/or antisemitic conduct or ideology” to their superiors.

DHS also told immigration officers to pay particular attention to anyone who took part in the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel campus protests in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent war in Gaza, the report said. The agents were told to examine whether applicants promoted antisemitism “through rhetorical or physical actions.”

“If you hate America, you have no business demanding to live in America,” said Zach Kahler, a spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles green card applications.

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said they aimed to protect “American institutions, the safety of citizens, national security and the freedoms of the United States.”

Students and faculty rally at the University of California, Berkeley campus to protest the Trump administration’s crackdown on universities over antisemitism, on March 19, 2025, in Berkeley, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

The reported policy is part of a raft of recent White House actions to combat antisemitism and criticism of Israel, including via immigration policy. Since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, his administration has sought to revoke anti-Israel campus protesters’ student visas and has weighed reviewing tourists’ social media histories.

A directive last year from USCIS tells agents to examine whether aspiring immigrants “support or promote anti-American ideologies or activities, antisemitic terrorism and antisemitic terrorist organizations, or… promote antisemitic ideologies.”

Although ideology has always played a part when vetting green card applicants, it had previously only impacted people belonging to communist or other totalitarian parties, or who had supported violent or unconstitutional calls to overthrow the US government.

The reported new policy comes amid the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown, which has targeted undocumented immigrants for deportation along with reducing legal immigration. Green card approvals have fallen by half in recent months.

The administration has also said it is combating antisemitism by suing or withholding funding from universities over their response to campus anti-Israel activism. 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-reportedly-denying-green-cards-over-anti-israel-social-media-posts/

In guidance to immigration officers, the administration describes participating in pro-Palestinian protests and criticizing Israel as “overwhelmingly negative” factors.

Supporters of Palestine demonstrating in New York last year. Under new guidance issued by the Trump administration, immigrants could be denied a green card for participating in pro-Palestinian protests.

“There is no room in America for aliens who espouse anti-American ideologies or support terrorist organizations,” Joseph Edlow, the agency’s director, told Congress.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of pro-Palestinian student activists, including one who wrote a column criticizing her university’s response to pro-Palestinian demands.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/us/politics/trump-green-cards-scrutiny.html