Ideological Screening at the Border
Documents released in our FOIA lawsuit for records on the "extreme vetting" program
This Reading Room contains all of the documents produced to date in Knight Institute v. DHS, a FOIA lawsuit the Knight Institute filed on October 4, 2017, seeking records on how the Trump administration is implementing the president’s call for an “extreme vetting program."
Our FOIA lawsuit sought records from the agencies charged with developing the program: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Department of State (DOS). We requested documents concerning the program and the government’s asserted power to exclude individuals on the basis of their speech, beliefs, or associations.
In response, the agencies released over 300 documents, many heavily redacted, and hardly any referencing the extreme vetting program itself.
How to use this Reading Room: The collection below can be searched by keyword, or filtered using the criteria in the left-hand column. In addition, any search can be filtered for “Key Documents,” which are the documents that Knight Institute staff have flagged as the most significant disclosed.
Showing 141–150 of 341
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DOS Cover Page: Imposing Visa Restrictions on Venezuela
Cover page for memorandum on visa restrictions related to Venezuela.
6/28/2018
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DOS Cover Page: Imposing Visa Restrictions on Venezuela
Cover page for memorandum on visa restrictions related to Venezuela.
6/28/2018
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DOS Memo: Imposing Visa Restrictions on Venezuela
Memorandum proposing imposing visa restrictions on Venezuelan officials, noting the need to rely on the INA's foreign policy provision in denying visas to immediate family members on the basis of association alone.
11/9/2018
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DOS Memo: Imposing Visa Restrictions on Venezuela
Memorandum proposing imposing visa restrictions on Venezuelan officials, noting the need to rely on the INA's foreign policy provision in denying visas to immediate family members on the basis of association alone.
11/9/2018
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DOS Memo: Imposing Visa Restrictions on Venezuela
Memorandum proposing imposing visa restrictions on Venezuelan officials, noting the need to rely on the INA's foreign policy provision in denying visas to immediate family members on the basis of association alone.
6/28/2018
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DOS Memo: Imposing Visa Restrictions on Venezuela
Memorandum proposing imposing visa restrictions on Venezuelan officials, noting the need to rely on the INA's foreign policy provision in denying visas to immediate family members on the basis of association alone.
6/28/2018
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DOS Memo: Imposing Visa Restrictions on Russia and Ukraine
Memorandum proposing restricting the issuance of visas to Russian and Ukrainian officials involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
6/28/2018
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DOS Memo: Implementation Guidelines for Russian and Ukraine Visa Restrictions
Memorandum discussing visa restrictions on Russian officials associated with the invasion of Ukraine.
6/28/2018
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USCIS Chart: USCIS TRIG NGO Meeting
Chart summarizing exemptions granted and denied under various Terrorism-Related Inadmissibility Grounds authorities.
6/29/2018
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DOS Cover Page: Further Strengthening Visa Restrictions Against Syria and Denying Visas [redacted]
Cover Page for memorandum proposing tightening visa restrictions on Syrian regime officials.
11/9/2018