House GOP Working on Requiring Social Media Vetting of Visa Applicants

The Homeland Security Department says it is reviewing policies on looking at social media posts to vet would-be immigrants applying for certain visas.

The U.S. government may impose tighter scrutiny of visa-seekers’ social media accounts following revelations that one of the San Bernardino attackers discussed violence before she was allowed into the country.

While there now is no explicit order banning visa investigators from trawling applicants’ social media accounts, some agencies have been wary about doing so, the official said.

Officials familiar with the investigation into the San Bernardino shootings say that it was discovered after the shootings that Malik began posting social media messages demonstrating a sympathy for Islamic militancy before her USA visa was granted.

“Following the tragedy in San Bernardino, we have learned that the Obama Administration has declined to review information available on social media platforms to screen for threats from foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States”, McCain said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the bodies of Farook and Malik remained at a local morgue late Monday as the couple’s families continue to try to work out the details of their burial. She was also interviewed in by the US consulate in Pakistan and again by an immigration officer inside the United States before being given a green card.

The Homeland Security Department said three pilot programs to specifically incorporate “appropriate” social media reviews into its vetting process were launched in the a year ago and the department is looking at other ways to use social media posts.

Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) and Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), both members of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote the letter in response to what DeSantis called the Department of Homeland Security’s “failure to address potential national security threats”.

Routine visa background inquiries usually include checking a visa applicant’s name against various spy agency and law enforcement databases, but would not normally involve extensive investigations in the applicant’s country of origin.

They are also trying to look at whether possible encouragement, financial support or detailed instructions were provided to Malik and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook before they initiated the attack that claimed 14 lives and left 22 wounded.

Malik also reportedly had a longer history of posting messages under a pseudonym that expressed support for waging jihad. It is not clear how that policy has been in place, but John Cohen, a former high-ranking Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official and now a consultant for ABC News, says that the matter was last brought up for review in 2014. The paper’s report added that the messages were written in Urdu, Pakistan’s official language, and sent only to “a small group of her friends”.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday the Homeland Security and State departments have been asked to review the process for screening people who apply for visas and to return with specific recommendations. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), was signed by Democratic Sens.

And in an era when ISIS uses social media propaganda to recruit, plan, and promote its radical Islamist ideology, why would US officials not review social media posts?