The U.S. government just announced new rules that could have a chilling effect on immigrants who speak out for Palestine.

USCIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services) said it will now consider certain kinds of political activity — including what it calls “anti-American activity” or “antisemitic activity” — when deciding whether someone qualifies for immigration benefits. The burden, they said, is on applicants to prove they deserve a favorable outcome.

Critics say this is essentially a way to punish immigrants for pro-Palestine activism. The ACLU called it a blatant violation of free speech rights. “The ability to speak one’s mind is a core constitutional right and an indispensable American value,” said Vera Eidelman, senior staff attorney with the ACLU.

This isn’t coming out of nowhere. Since Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2023, both Democratic and Republican administrations have escalated attacks on pro-Palestine activists. Trump officials, in particular, have targeted foreign-born activists — in some cases detaining and trying to deport them.

One example is Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who became a prominent face of the 2024 campus protests. Earlier this year, he was detained in Louisiana for months and nearly deported, missing the birth of his first child. Officials accused him of antisemitism, even though his activism focused on ending U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Another case involved Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts. ICE agents detained her after she co-wrote an opinion piece urging the university to cut ties with Israel. Homeland Security falsely claimed she supported Hamas.

Now, the new guidance formalizes and expands this crackdown. USCIS says it’s broadening social media vetting and will flag “anti-American activity” as a major negative factor when reviewing cases. Officials frame this as protecting the U.S. from people who “despise the country.”

But advocates warn it’s really about silencing dissent. Linking criticism of Israel to terrorism or antisemitism, they argue, is meant to intimidate immigrants into silence — and could even bar them from staying in the country at all. Photo by Gulbenk, Wikimedia commons.