The administration of President Donald Trump expanded the scrutiny of social media to new categories of visa applicants, including foreign media representatives and professionals from Mexico and Canada traveling to the United States under the USMCA trade agreement.
The measure was revealed this Thursday by The Daily Signal, which had access to an internal memorandum from the State Department.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, publicly supported the information by sharing the report on her official X account.
The new requirements will apply to representatives of foreign media and certain Mexican and Canadian citizens who enter to engage in professional activities covered by the T-MEC, as well as their spouses and dependent children.
Applicants included in these categories must change the settings of their social media profiles to remain "public" or "open," allowing consular officials to review their digital presence during the evaluation process.
The memorandum indicates that the Department of State utilizes all available sources of information to identify individuals who may be inadmissible or pose a threat to national or public security.
The administration views each visa decision as a matter of national security and asserts that applicants must demonstrate both their eligibility and their genuine intention to comply with the terms of entry and stay in the country.
For Cubans, the new regulation does not represent an automatic additional review for all applications.
It could primarily affect those applying for visas as representatives of foreign media or other categories included in the expansions by the Department of State.
“A U.S. visa remains a privilege granted at the discretion of the government, not a right,” warns the document cited by The Daily Signal.
The measure is part of a broader policy of tightening immigration controls.
In a recent Facebook post, the Department of State listed several cases of revoked visas for foreigners accused of serious crimes and stated that it will use all available tools to prevent the entry or residency of individuals who pose a threat.
The review of social media did not begin with this new expansion. Since June 2019, the United States has required almost all immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants to provide the social media identifiers used in the past five years, a measure implemented as part of the enhancement of security controls and identity verification.
The latest change extends the obligation to maintain visible profiles for direct review to other groups.
The State Department had already expanded in March the control of digital presence to numerous categories, in addition to the H-1B and H-4 visas, and the F, M, and J visas used by students and participants in exchange programs.
In June 2025, the United States also ordered a review of the social media accounts of student visa applicants and required that their accounts be accessible to consular officials.
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