Homeland Security Plans To Collect Immigrants' Social Media Information (fortune.com)

The Department of Homeland Security plans to expand the files it collects on immigrants, as well as some citizens, by including more online data -- most notably search results and social media information -- about each individual. The plan is set out in the Federal Register, where the government publishes forthcoming regulations. A final version is set to go into effect on Oct. 18. Fortune reports: The plan, reported by BuzzFeed, is notable partly because it permits the government to amass information not only about recent immigrants, but also on green card holders and naturalized Americans as well. The proposal to collect social media data is set out in a part of the draft regulation that describes expanding the content of so-called "Alien Files," which serve as detailed profiles of individual immigrants, and are used by everyone from border agents to judges. Here is the relevant portion: "The Department of Homeland Security, therefore, is updating the [file process] to ... (5) expand the categories of records to include the following: country of nationality; country of residence; the USCIS Online Account Number; social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information, and search results."

Comments

Before people lose their minds again

[El Cubano]

Before people go losing their minds again about how Trump is a xenophobic racist, please have a look at this Slashdot article from 15 months ago:

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/06/28/005202/us-customs-wants-to-know-travelers-social-media-account-names

You will note that it was during the Obama administration. I am not making a value judgment on the practice, I am just pointing out that the previous administration did or tried to do something substantially similar.

Re:Before people lose their minds again

[emag]

That didn't apply to naturalized citizens. This new one does. Naturalized citizens are now second class citizens.

Re:Before people lose their minds again

[Anonymous Coward]

A naturalized citizen is a person who was born to illegal immigrants

No they aren't, what you are referring to here is what is termed as anchor babies where some people make the claim that the 14th Amendment

which reads

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.

means any kid popped out on US soil is automatically a citizen regardless of the status of their parents. A claim that has never been upheld by any court and doesn't actually have backing by the Amendment itself because there's that little phrase and subject to the jurisdiction thereof that those making the claim like to ignore. That phrase means the person in question must not be under the jurisdiction of any other nation at the time of birth.

So an immigrant not yet a US citizen is technically a citizen of their home country, as is a tourist on a baby visit. Just as the United States has no problems taxing its citizens who live in foreign countries or, requiring those living abroad to still sign up for selective service and, should be necessary, to draft those folks into military service for the US, so the same applies to the immigrants and their home countries. Until a person renounces their citizenship in another country and gains citizenship in the US, they are technically not under the jurisdiction of the United States. That phrase was specifically added at the time of the Amendment to ensure that the freed slaves were covered by the Amendment, but not the local indian tribes. The freed slaves had no choice about being here so they were considered under the jurisdiction of, but the original Amendment did not apply to the indian tribes that were here as they were considered not to be under the jurisdiction of the US government, they were considered separate nations. That change latter with legislation.

So birth is not what makes you a naturalized citizen, there is a well defined legal process that an immigrant goes through to become a naturalized citizen, which ends with a swearing in ceremony where they renounce allegiance to any other government and swear allegiance to the US. At this point they become under the jurisdiction of the US government and any of their children born after naturalization are considered native born American citizens.

Re:Before people lose their minds again

[DarkOx]

A naturalized citizen is a person who was born to illegal immigrants.

Completely false! A naturalized is a legal immigrant who has become a citizen. Someone born here regardless of their citizenship parents is citizen and could be president.

Re:Tried to slip that one by us

[Aighearach]

You misunderstood. Some citizens have an A-file, is what that means. There is no requirement in the Constitution for the government to throw out all records about you if you become a citizen.

What this does has nothing to do with that. It was already true that an immigrant has an A-file, where the records relating to their immigration are kept. And also that citizens who sponsor immigrants also have a file in the same system, as do translators and other professionals who work with immigrants during the process.

What this does is add "social medial handles" to the list of examples of types of alias, creates a place in the database for search results relating to social media. When somebody is asking to move here, why wouldn't that be part of their background check? Why wouldn't social media handles be a type of alias? They're not doing a background check on the US citizen who is sponsoring an immigrant, they're doing the checks on the immigrant. Why wouldn't there be checks? Why wouldn't the database have a slot for the data?

Re: Tried to slip that one by us

[ShanghaiBill]

You don't get to be President, just as one example.

You also cannot be Vice President, and that is the only other example.
There are no other differences. A naturalized citizen has all the other rights of a native born citizen.