WASHINGTON: US immigration authorities said Wednesday they will look at social media accounts and deny visas or residence permits to people who post content considered antisemitic by President Donald Trump’s administration. Posts defined as antisemitic will include social media activity in support of militant groups classified by the United States as terrorists, including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi insurgents. The move comes after the Trump administration has controversially canceled visas for students inside the United States, where the First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for antisemitic violence and terrorism — think again. You are not welcome here,” department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services “will consider social media content that indicates an alien endorsing, espousing, promoting or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations or other antisemitic activity as a negative factor” in determining benefits, the statement said.

The policy will take effect immediately and apply to student visas and requests for permanent resident “green cards” to stay in the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late last month that he has stripped visas for some 300 people and was doing so on a daily basis. Rubio said that non-US citizens do not have the same rights as Americans and that it was at his discretion, not that of judges, to issue or deny visas.

A number of people stripped of visas contend that they never voiced antipathy for Jews, with some saying that they were targeted because they found themselves in the same place as protests. The most high-profile deportation case is Mahmoud Khalil, who led protests at Columbia University in New York. He was also taken to Louisiana ahead of deportation proceedings, despite being a US permanent resident.

An immigration judge on Tuesday gave the US government a day to show evidence that Khalil should be deported and said she would rule on the case on Friday, a month after his arrest in New York and transfer to a rural Louisiana jail 1,200 miles (1,931.21 km) away. “If he’s not removable, I’m going to be terminating this case on Friday,” Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans said during a hearing at the LaSalle Immigration Court in Jena, Louisiana. If the government’s deportation case is terminated at the hearing scheduled for Friday afternoon, Khalil, 30, is free under immigration law. — Agencies

The government cannot challenge the termination, but if the judge terminates the case without prejudice it can attempt to file the removal case again. Khalil’s attorney Van Der Hout said he was concerned the judge would rule without giving the defense time to respond to the government’s case, a concern he had raised earlier in court. “What this case is really about is whether lawful permanent residents — and other immigrants to this country — can speak out about what is happening in Gaza, or any other important matters of discussion in the national discourse without fear of deportation for expressing beliefs that are completely protected by the First Amendment,” Van Der Hout said. “Are US citizens going to be next?” — Agencies