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 281–290 of 341
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DOS Report: Congressional Report of Visa Denial
Congressional report discussing an unnamed Venezuelan national denied a visa under the INA's foreign policy provision.
6/28/2018
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ICE Memo: Update on Lawyers Group Analysis of Immigration Ineligibility Categories
Memorandum discussing INA § 212(a)(3)(D), and other grounds for finding aliens ineligible to receive visas or to be admitted into the United States under the INA.
6/29/2018
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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.
2/26/2019
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8 U.S.C. 1182
Verbatim reproduction of the INA's foreign policy provision.
6/28/2018
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8 U.S.C. 1182
Verbatim reproduction of the INA's foreign policy provision.
6/28/2018
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DOS Memo: List of Individuals Recommended for Ineligibility
Memorandum containing a list of Russian and Ukrainian officials proposed for visa restrictions, which is almost entirely withheld.
2/26/2019
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DOS Memo re: Proposed Change to Terrorism-Related Inadmissibility Grounds Exemptions
Memorandum summarizing the parameters and limits of exemptions to the INA's Terrorism-Related Inadmissibility Grounds provision, and proposing to extend the ability to exempt individuals to consular officers.
11/9/2018
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DOS Memo: Implementation Guidelines for Mauritania Visa Restrictions
Memorandum discussing the implementation of a policy restricting the issuance of visas to "persons who . . . impede the return to constitutional rule in Mauritania" after the 2008 coup, 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: Previously Approved Policies to Scrutinize and Generally Deny Visas
Memorandum summarizing past policies of denying visas to classes of individuals under the INA's foreign policy provision.
6/28/2018
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DOS Memo: Implementation Guidelines for Visa Restrictions on [redacted] Government Officials
Memorandum discussing the implementation of visa sanctions against officials of an unnamed country, 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