Tillerson rolls out ‘extreme vetting’
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson has asked the country’s diplomatic missions across the world to identify “populations warranting increased scrutiny”, signalling the introduction of “extreme vetting” of visa applicants promised by President Donald Trump.
The directives were cabled to US missions recently, probably including those in India— the embassy in New Delhi and consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. A response to a request for confirmation from the state department was awaited.
Tillerson’s directives include a “mandatory social media check” for all applicants who have ever been present in territory controlled by Islamic State.
The instructions asked the missions to “develop a list of criteria identifying sets of post-application populations warranting increased scrutiny” and then ask applicants from these groups specified questions: About their travel history over the past 15 years, their passports for the same period, their phone numbers, home addresses, employment history, email and social media IDs and names of children, siblings and ex-spouses.
These groups marked for extreme vetting will vary across countries, as Tillerson’s cables left that determination to be made by US law enforcement and intelligence officials .
The rules are to apply to applicants in all but 38 countries covered by the visa waiver program that include almost all of Europe and allies such as Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.
Trump promised to tighten scrutiny of visa applicants to keep “bad dudes” out of the US, reeling back an extreme position he took earlier proposing a ban on all Muslims entering the country.
Some of these cables, as internal diplomatic communications are called, were about implementing Trump’s order temporarily freezing new visas for citizens of six Muslim-majority nation, but were rescinded because of court orders.
Chirag Patel, an immigration lawyer in Maryland, said these new instructions are bound to make entry into the United States more difficult, adding, it, entry, was “Already pretty bad. Could/ Will get worse.”
Earlier this week, the Trump administration imposed new restrictions on electronic devices carried by travellers coming to the US from 10 airports mainly in the Middle East and Africa.