Three unions represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the Trump administration Thursday over the program's search for visa holders' social media posts, arguing the practice violates the First Amendment rights of people legally in the United States.
Lawsuit filed in New York federal courtasks a judge to bar the administration from engaging in “viewpoint-based investigation and surveillance.” It also seeks a court order to delete all records created so far under the administration's program.
The Trump administration has said it searches social media for posts it deems hostile or threatening and then uses that information as the basis for revoking some people's visas. President Donald Trump announced the framework for the policy in January. in the order targeting non-citizens in the country who “adopt hostile attitudes” or support “threats to our national security,” and the Department of Homeland Security in April said it was a show activity of foreign citizens on social networks for the purpose of anti-Semitism.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said in July that there are administration officials “I work constantly” to revoke the visas of foreigners who “express hatred of America or its people.” And in topic on X this weekThe State Department cited six examples of visas it said were revoked from foreign nationals for commemorating last month's shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Eat more than 55 million people Those with valid U.S. visas, including for tourism, study or work, put a huge portion of the population under potential monitoring on social media, according to the Associated Press.
Last month, a federal judge in Boston ruled that the deportation policy violated the right to freedom of speech foreign students studying in the United States who expressed support for Palestinian rights, but the judge 161 page order did not touch upon the monitoring of social networks by the administration, which led to the deportation procedure. Separate lawsuit A case pending in California federal court also challenges deportation orders.
The latest lawsuit makes a different argument than the other two: In addition to challenging the deportation of visa holders, it takes aim at the Trump administration's massive social media searches, arguing that it amounts to an unlawful program of widespread surveillance and suppression of dissent.
“They are using a variety of automated and artificial intelligence tools to scan and verify online speech on a massive scale that would not be possible with human analysis alone,” said Lisa Femia, a staff attorney at San Francisco-based EFF, a nonprofit organization focused on online digital rights and civil liberties.
“It requires a lot of speeches,” she said. “In many ways, this is basic political speech that is absolutely protected by the First Amendment.”
In addition to lawyers from the EFF, the plaintiffs are represented by lawyers from Muslim Advocates, a legal group for American Muslims, and the Media Freedom and Access to Information Clinic, a student legal clinic at Yale Law School.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Thursday the administration believes it has a strong legal basis.
“The Supreme Court has repeatedly made it clear that aliens do not have the same First Amendment rights as American citizens,” Pigott said in an email. “The United States has no obligation to allow foreigners to come to our country and commit acts of anti-American, pro-terrorism, anti-Semitic hatred, or incite violence. We will continue to revoke the visas of those who jeopardize the safety of our citizens.”
The Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech applies to foreign nationals in the United States, including in the 1945 case including an attempt to deport an alleged Australian-born communist. Other cases, for example one from 1952 Trump administration lawyers quote earlier this yeardepended on whether the noncitizen's speech included “advocating change through force and violence.”
The White House referred questions to the State Department.
EFF filed the lawsuit on behalf of three major unions that represent teachers, graduate students and others who say their speech has been suppressed: the American Federation of Teachers, the Communications Workers of America and the United Auto Workers. (Despite its name, the UAW includes many members who work outside the auto industry, including in academia.)
The lawsuit says union members' speech is “chilled by the threat of adverse immigration action if the government does not approve of anything they have expressed or will voice.” It also said the unions themselves had become inactive due to “fear of punitive consequences from immigration.”
The lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration is operating the “surveillance program” as an interagency operation between the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. It says the program's purpose is to “identify objectionable viewpoints” and that it has the effect of “silencing”. The program violates not only the First Amendment, but also the Administrative Procedure Act, the federal law on how agencies are allowed to operate, the lawsuit claims.
Femia said the Trump administration appears to be adopting a broad definition of threatening speech, covering not just statements about Kirk or Palestinian rights, but anything it deems objectionable. Trump's January order addressed “hostility to [American] citizens, culture, government, institutions or fundamental principles.”
“Speech inhibition is increased by uncertainty,” Femia said. “The list appears to expand unpredictably at the whim of the president or administration.”
The administration has discussed its policies on social media, issuing strong warnings about foreign speech. The State Department thread on X received 17 million views on Tuesday.
“Foreigners who take advantage of America's hospitality and celebrate the murder of our citizens will be expelled,” the State Department said. in the thread on Xreferring to Kirk's death.
