Home West Africa Liberians Applying for U.S. Visa Should Give Details of Social Media Account

Liberians Applying for U.S. Visa Should Give Details of Social Media Account

8
Liberians Applying for U.S. Visa Should Give Details of Social Media Account

(3 Minutes Read)

Liberians are not alone. The move is part of a new policy tightening screening processes across the board. The aim is “to ensure those applying for admission to the United States do not intend to harm Americans and our national interests,” the US State Department said in a press release on 18 June, adding that “a US visa is a privilege, not a right.”  

Liberians applying for U.S. visas will have to give American authorities access to their social media, according to the US Embassy in Monrovia.

In a statement posted on its website, the embassy said that people “applying for an F, M, or J non-immigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under US law.”

But Liberians are not alone. The move is part of a new policy tightening screening processes across the board. The aim is “to ensure those applying for admission to the United States do not intend to harm Americans and our national interests,” the US State Department said in a press release on 18 June, adding that “a US visa is a privilege, not a right.”

Since returning to office in January, Donald Trump has cracked down on foreign nationals who want to enter the US and those already in the country. Tourists and legal permanent residents of the US, including nationals of Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom, have also been detained trying to enter the country.

On Monday, the US Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to restart deporting migrants to countries other than their homelands, as part of sweeping anti-immigrant measures that have sparked widespread protests, high-profile detentions and various court challenges.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration issued a travel ban on citizens of 12 countries that restricted access to people from seven others, includes some exceptions, part of the administration’s efforts to withstand the legal challenges that a similar policy known as the ‘Muslim ban’ faced during Donald Trump’s first administration.

The ban applies to people from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The restrictions are for people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, who are outside the United States and don’t hold a visa.

In one of the most confusing moments of his first administration, Trump issued an executive order in 2017 banning travel to the US by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

People from those countries were barred from getting on flights to the US or detained at US airports after landing. Among them were students, faculty, businesspeople, tourists, and people visiting family.

Read Also:

https://trendsnafrica.com/drc-and-liberia-become-non-permanent-members-of-unsc/

The order, dubbed a ‘Muslim ban’ by critics, faced legal challenges in the courts for about a year and was amended twice after opponents argued that it was unconstitutional and illegal. A version of the first travel ban was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.