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 311–320 of 341
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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: 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: 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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ICE Memo: Questionnaire for Evaluating Whether an Organization Is a Totalitarian Party
Memorandum setting out a questionnaire for determining whether an alien is covered by INA § 212(a)(3)(D), which renders inadmissible any member of a "totalitarian party."
6/29/2018
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DOS Memo: List of Human Rights Violators
Memorandum listing individuals subject to visa policy against Venezuelan officials, almost entirely withheld.
6/28/2018
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DOS Memo: Implementation Guidelines for Visa Restrictions
Memorandum discussing the implementation of visa policies connected with the conflict in Yemen, 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: [redacted]
6/28/2018
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DOS Memo: Implementation Guidelines for Honduras Visa Restrictions
Memorandum discussing the implementation of a policy to lift visa restrictions on individuals associated with the 2009 coup in Honduras, noting the need to rely on the INA's foreign policy provision.
6/28/2018
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DOS Memo: Secondary List of Individual Recommenced for Visa Ineligibility
Memorandum containing a list of names proposed for visa restrictions.
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