US looking at ways to better screen would-be immigrants

Consular officers are already allowed to search applicants’ social media accounts if they see it as “valuable or necessary” but it is not a mandatory policy, NBC reports Kirby as saying.

The Department is actively considering additional ways to incorporate the use of social media review in its various vetting programs.

According to ABC News, the United States had a secret policy up until 2014 where officials deliberately ignored social media posts when vetting visa applications.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the homeland security and state departments had been asked to review the process for screening people who apply for visas and to return with specific recommendations.

“The Department will continue to ensure that any use of social media in its vetting program is consistent with current law and appropriately takes into account civil rights and civil liberties and privacy protections”, she told ABC News.

“They felt looking at public postings [of foreign US visa applicants] was an invasion of their privacy”, the official told ABC News.

Tashfeen Malik, a native of Pakistan, moved to California a year ago with Syed Rizwan Farook, a United States citizen who is thought to have met Malik on a 2013 trip to Saudi Arabia. She also had to provide fingerprints and a variety of background information.

The revelations come after American law enforcement officials announced that they recently discovered that Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband carried out the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., had talked openly on social media about her views on violent jihad, reported The New York Times. But shortly after the attack earlier this month at the Inland Regional Center, investigators found Malik had pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Facebook as the attack was unfolding.

“We want to look at how our immigration process for a visa for a spouse broke down, that they didn’t notice the radicalisation”, Senator Burr said. The possible policy changes are being considered at USCIS, the DHS agency in charge of managing immigration benefits cases and interviewing green card applicants.

“During that time period immigration officials were not allowed to use or review social media as part of the screening process”, John Cohen, a former acting under-secretary at DHS for intelligence and analysis, told ABC News.

At the time of her visa review, Malik’s social media accounts were not checked for suspicious activity, despite the fact that she frequently posted pro-jihadist sentiments.

The FBI has said the couple was not on its radar until after the attacks and the shootout with police hours later that ended in their death.

Malik entered the USA on a K-1 fiancée visa, despite a history of making incendiary and radical comments on social media.