US embassies must identify certain groups for stricter visa screening

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has directed US diplomatic missions to identify “populations warranting increased scrutiny” and toughen screening for visas in those groups, according to diplomatic cables.

He has also ordered a “mandatory social media check” for all applicants who have ever been in territory controlled by the Islamic State, in what two former officials said would be a broad, labour-intensive expansion of such screening. Social media screening was done fairly rarely by consular officials, a former official said.

Four memos issued by Tillerson over the past two weeks provide insight into how the government is implementing what President Donald Trump has called “extreme vetting” of foreigners entering the US, a major campaign promise.

The cables also demonstrate the administrative and logistical hurdles the White House faces in executing its vision.

The memos, which have not been previously reported, provided instructions for implementing Trump’s March 6 revised executive order temporarily barring visitors from six Muslim-majority countries and all refugees, as well as a simultaneous memorandum mandating enhanced visa screening.

The flurry of cables to US missions abroad issued strict new guidelines for vetting US visa applicants, and then retracted some of them in response to US court rulings that challenged central tenets of Trump’s executive order.

The final cable, on March 17, leaves in place an instruction to consular chiefs in each diplomatic post, to convene working groups of law enforcement and intelligence officials to “develop a list of criteria identifying sets of post-applicant populations warranting increased scrutiny”. – Reuters