On April 9, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on its website that they will begin considering:
aliens’ antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests. This will immediately affect aliens applying for lawful permanent resident status, foreign students and aliens affiliated with educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity.
UH has already warned students on the International FAQ about the possible monitoring of social media activity. This announcement is a confirmation that such activity deemed antisemitic may directly impact applications to USCIS. For F-1 and J-1 students, this relates immediately to applications for F-1 OPT and STEM Extension, F-1 economic hardship work permits, changes of status, and J-2 dependent work permits, among others.