Today the Identity Project, Privacy Times, and Government Information Watch filed comments objecting to a proposal by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for blanket advance approval for USCIS to demand that all foreigners submitting any sort of application to USCIS provide a statement under penalty of perjury a list of all  social media “platforms” and “identifiers” they have used in the last five years. The forms on which this information would be required would include applications for permanent residency, adjustment of status, and naturalization.

The proposal builds on earlier proposals, to which we and many other organizations objected, to require applicants for visas or visa-free entry to the US to provide lists of social media platforms and identifiers they have used. The current proposal by USCIS would extend mandatory social media usage reporting to those foreigners who have already demonstrated the strongest ties to the US, including permanent US residents applying for naturalization as US citizens. The current proposal would also give blanket pre-approval to USCIS to demand this information on other forms in the future.

According to our comments:

The proposed collection of information does not comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This vague and overbroad collection of information from permanent residents, applicants for naturalization, and other non-U.S. citizens is inappropriate as a matter of policy and contrary to U.S. national and international interests in democracy and human rights. In many cases, it would be impossible for individuals to provide the requested information or to attest under penalty of perjury to its completeness. The proposed request for information, in its proposed form, would thus function as a pretext for denial of residency or naturalization as a citizen or other adverse decisions.

The proposal for this collection of information by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) should be withdrawn. If this proposal is submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval, it should be rejected as failing to meet the statutory standard of necessity for an agency purpose and as a violation of the Constitutional and human rights of individuals about whom information would be collected, including U.S. citizens who engage in protected acts of assembly and speech with non-U.S citizens.

Social media platforms and identifiers are undefined in the proposal or in any other law or regulation, leaving the proposed requirement unconstitutionally vague.

The proposal targets social media, and only social media, in order to identify with whom we associate, including associations between US and foreign citizens. It appears to be based on the assumption that freedom of speech and freedom of association are rights of citizenship, not human rights, that can be denied not just to non-citizens but to US citizens who associate with foreigners. But this assumption has no basis in the US Constitution or in the human rights treaties the US has ratified.

What, if any, social media platforms or identifiers a person has used is not, and cannot Constitutionally be, a basis for USCIS decisions. Rather than having any lawful use, this information would be useful only for a a variety of unlawful purposes, including:

• Robotic predictive pre-crime profiling;
• Suspicion generation and guilt by association; and
• Pretextual denial of applications for permanent residency or naturalization.

You can submit your own comments on the USCIS proposal by clicking on the “Comment” button here until the end of the day on Monday, May 5, 2025.

We have urged USCIS to withdraw its proposal for this collection of social media usage information. If the proposal is not withdrawn, there will be a second comment period when it is submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final approval