The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering forcing refugees and visa applicants from seven Muslim-majority countries to hand over their login details for Facebook and other social media sites as part of a security check.

“We want to get on their social media, with passwords – what do you do, what do you say?” said the DHS secretary, John Kelly, speaking to Congress during the House committee on homeland security on Tuesday. “If they don’t want to cooperate then you don’t come in.”

The proposed security measure would be for immigrants and refugees from the countries referenced in Trump’s controversial executive order (currently blocked by a federal judge): Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Kelly said that under the current vetting process officials “don’t have a lot to work with” and must rely on reviewing the individual’s paperwork and asking them questions about their background. It can be particularly hard to check the backgrounds of people from “failed states” like Syria and Somalia, he said, as ongoing conflict has damaged identity record infrastructure.

“When someone says, ‘I’m from this town and this was my occupation,’ [border officials] essentially have to take the word of the individual. I frankly don’t think that’s enough, certainly President Trump doesn’t think that’s enough. So we’ve got to maybe add some additional layers,” said Kelly.

Another security measure being considered by homeland security under the Trump administration is demanding financial records. “We can follow the money, so to speak,” said Kelly. “How are you living, who is sending you money?”

US travel ban - a brief guide The executive order signed by Donald Trump suspends the entire US refugee admissions system, already one of the most rigorous in the world, for 120 days. It also suspends the Syrian refugee program indefinitely, and bans entry to the US to people from seven majority-Muslim countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – for 90 days. The order has prompted a series of legal challenges, while thousands of Americans have protested outside airports and courthouses in solidarity with Muslims and migrants.

He said this could help identify “individuals who may be on the payroll of terrorist organizations”.

Immigrants from the seven countries affected by the executive order already face intense screening by homeland security.

“People from all countries nowadays go through a vetting process, particularly from parts of the worlds where there is political instability and violence, and are thoroughly checked. Refugees are the most checked of all the people,” said Ibrahim Hooper, from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Facebook engineer Murtadha Al-Tameemi, who was born in Iraq, last week told the Guardian that every time he returns to the US from a business trip or family visit he is subjected to up to four hours of secondary screening.

“Sometimes they take my phone and look through my photos, my Facebook and emails, and ask about the people contacting me, or where I took a photo, or why was I in a particular location. If you don’t give them your phone they don’t let you into the country,” he said.



Reacting to Kelly’s comments, Al-Tameemi said: “I don’t really understand how this is supposed to help. Maybe terrorists aren’t as smart as I think, but if these checks become a guaranteed and expected part of the vetting process, wouldn’t it be super easy to get around this by having a fake account that you log in to before crossing the border?”

Sophia Cope, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, described the proposals as evidence of a “steady progression of overreach by the department”.

“Whether border agents demand usernames and passwords to social media accounts or access apps, such searches can lead to private communications,” she said. “Such practices violate human rights norms around free speech and privacy for foreigners and implicate the constitutional rights of Americans.”

For Hooper, the proposed measure is another step towards Trump carrying out what he announced in December 2015: a complete ban of Muslim entry to the United States.

“It’s kind of a drip drip approach. Everything you do singles out Muslims for special treatment in violation of constitution. That’s what we have, what we have to deal with,” he said.

It’s not the first time homeland security has considered demanding social media passwords of visitors to the US. The Obama administration mulled, but eventually rejected, the idea in 2015.

Instead the government adopted a watered-down policy to ask foreign visitors coming into the US under the visa waiver program – which allows people to visit the US for up to 90 days for leisure or business – to disclose their social media handles (but not passwords).

The optional measure was designed to “provide DHS greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections by providing an additional tool set which analysts and investigators may use”.

