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Anti-Israel protesters outside of the White House expressing support of Hamas, June 8, 2024 (Photo: Screenshot/X)
The U.S. State Department, under the leadership of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is launching an AI-led initiative called, “Catch and Revoke,” This program aims to revoke the visas of foreign nationals living in the United States who publicly express support for Hamas or any other designated terrorist organization, according to the Axios news outlet.
The effort is part of the Trump administration’s response to the growing incidents of antisemitism and radicalism on American university campuses following the Hamas massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
AI tools are expected to enhance U.S. capabilities to identify foreign students who support Hamas or are affiliated with extremist organizations. Under this new initiative, social media accounts will be monitored. In addition, internal U.S. databases will be searched to identify foreign visa holders who were initially arrested by the former Biden administration for extremist conduct and then permitted to stay in the United States.
U.S. authorities have already examined approximately 100,000 individuals in the Student Exchange Visitor System since October 2023. The new initiative will also seek to identify individuals at anti-Israel demonstrations in the U.S. and consult Jewish students’ lawsuits that include information about foreign nationals who have been engaged in anti-Jewish activities while residing in the United States.
Last November, Prof. Hedy Wald of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, warned that antisemitism on some U.S. campuses was reminiscent of “echoes of the Holocaust.”
Currently, officials are critical of the former Biden administration’s conduct towards foreign students engaged in extremist activities in the United States.
“We found literally zero visa revocations during the Biden administration,” an unnamed official told Axios, adding that this suggested “a blind eye attitude toward law enforcement.”
Rubio has vowed to combat antisemitism and to remove Hamas supporters from the United States.
“We see people marching at our universities and in the streets of our country … calling for Intifada, celebrating what Hamas has done … Those people need to go,” the state secretary said.
In January, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to combat antisemitism .
“It shall be the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence,” the executive order stated. It also threatens to deport “pro-jihadist” foreign students from the United States.
The Trump administration has also acknowledged the connection between antisemitism and anti-American sentiment. As a result, Trump signed another executive order targeting foreign visa holders who “threaten our national security” or “espouse hateful ideology.”
The Trump administration now faces criticism from some Arab-Americans.
Abed Ayoub, head of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, claimed that the Trump administration’s actions threaten the First Amendment and freedom of speech.
“This should concern all Americans. This is a First Amendment and freedom of speech issue and the administration will overplay its hand,” Ayoub said.
“Americans won’t like this. They’ll view this as capitulating free speech rights for a foreign nation,” he continued, likely referring to the Jewish state. “With the advent of AI, it’s even scarier because they’re policing speech and using faulty technology.”
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