The US State Department is combing through social media and pulling visas from foreigners who posted negative messages about podcaster Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot in September.

"The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans," the State Department wrote on X. "The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk."

The agency posted several examples of social media posts it found incriminating, including screenshots with the person's name redacted. One person, allegedly from Argentina, said they don't care "about the death of a person who devoted his entire life [to] spreading racist, xenophobic, misogynistic rhetoric."

"Visa revoked," the State Department said in response.

It's unclear whether the individuals were already in the US, which social media platforms they used, or what type of visas they held or were applying for. Legal aliens have First Amendment protections once they are lawfully in the US, according to the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.

Other examples include someone from South Africa who said Kirk "won't be remembered as a hero. He was used to astroturf a movement of white nationalist trailer trash!" The department even translated a post from German that called Kirk a fascist. The post listed multiple other examples, including one from Mexico and another from Paraguay, but without screenshots.

The State Department announced in June that it would be reviewing the "online presence" of students applying for visa categories F, M, and J. The Department instructed all student visa applicants to make their social media profiles public so it could review them as part of its review process. "We use all available information in our visa screening and vetting to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible to the United States, including those who pose a threat to US national security," the agency says.

By August, the administration had revoked 6,000 student visas, the BBC reports. It listed assault, burglary, driving under the influence, and "support for terrorism" as the main causes.

The first Trump administration also employed this tactic; it was sued by two documentary film organizations, though in June, the court ruled that they lacked standing.

The context of the policy is a broader crackdown on foreign student protesters, most notably the March arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian organizer, student at Columbia University, and green card holder. On X, Secretary of State Marco Rubio alleged that Khalil was a "Hamas supporter." His lawyers denied it, but Khalil was held for three months in Louisiana.

President Trump and his supporters have long argued that free speech is under fire, particularly after the president was banned from major social networks following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. He also accused the Biden administration of silencing right-wing influencers by alerting tech companies about COVID-related misinformation found on their networks. (The Supreme Court ruled that it was permissible.)

One of the first executive orders Trump signed upon returning to the White House was aimed at "restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship." However, efforts like the visa revocations call into question the administration's commitment to that pledge when it comes from across the aisle. A French researcher, for example, was denied entry to the US for a business trip after airport security found messages on his computer and phone demonstrating he did not support Trump's research policies, Le Monde reports.

The implication is that foreigners should censor what they say online if they seek to enter the US. However, Americans might also have cause to worry, as the Jimmy Kimmel episode demonstrated. In September, Vice President JD Vance also urged people to call the employers of anyone who celebrated Kirk's death and get them fired.

By: DocMemory
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