(NewsNation) —The State Department will launch a program using artificial intelligence that will revoke visas of foreign students the technology perceives as supporters of Hamas or other U.S.-designated terror groups.
Axios reported the plan Thursday, citing State Department officials.
The “Catch and Revoke” initiative, started under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, will use AI to scan and review tens of thousands of student visa holders’ social media accounts, the outlet reported.
The technology will look for any posts or documentation that shows support for Hamas after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel but also anything that shows participation in anti-war or pro-Palestinan demonstrations.
Axios reported that the department is also checking news reports of anti-Israel demonstrations and Jewish students’ lawsuits that highlight foreign nationals allegedly engaged in antisemitic activity without consequence.
The State Department is working with the departments of Justice and Homeland Security in a “whole of government and whole of authority approach,” according to the outlet.
Several civil and constitutional rights groups have called out the plan, citing free speech concerns.
“AI tools are emerging technologies, not trusted experts on the limits of protected speech under the First Amendment. They cannot be relied on to parse the nuances of expression about complex and contested matters like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said in a statement.
The group adds that the plan will “undoubtedly encourage self-censorship on our nation’s campuses.”
Abed Ayoub, head of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, also sounded the alarm, saying, “This should concern all Americans. This is a First Amendment and freedom of speech issue, and the administration will overplay its hand… Americans won’t like this. They’ll view this as capitulating free speech rights for a foreign nation,” he told Axios.
The move appears to fall in line with President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests.
“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or arrested,” Trump said Tuesday.
The Trump administration announced Friday that he would immediately pull about $400 million in federal grants and contracts from Columbia University, citing the school’s alleged “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
The university had been at the center of college protests in which demonstrators demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel due to the civilian deaths and humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s assault on Gaza.
There were allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia in protests and counterprotests.