The United States ought to know who is coming into the country. The government ought to make sure that nobody is getting a visa, a green card, or citizenship through fraud.

The rule of law requires this much. So do self-determination and self-governance. A government of the people must allow the people to determine who gets to join the people. That process requires those in power to root out and exclude those who lie in their efforts to enter the U.S.

President Trump, like most people around the country — including former President Barack Obama — has consistently called for a stricter vetting of would-be-immigrants. On Friday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a common-sense policy to enhance its vetting ability. Specifically, USCIS will have slightly expanded power to check out the public social media accounts of immigrants seeking green cards, citizenship, or other immigration benefits.

While we expect this rule change will spark yet another freakout from the media and the Left, the real shock is that USCIS didn’t have this authority already.

USCIS determines who gets to stay here and who gets to become a citizen. It is not actually a law enforcement agency. That fact limits its ability to vet applicants for immigration benefits.

For example, if the local police suspected that you were dealing drugs, they would be allowed to create a fictitious Instagram account in order to see if you happen to be posting publicly about your drug business. Until now, USCIS could not do that.

This changes today, which is good.

If a person applies for a green card on the grounds that he is marrying a U.S. citizen, a social media search could detect potential fraud.

If a USCIS field officer suspects the applicant might be lying (say, he didn’t know his fiance’s address, or had a tan line on his ring finger), the field officer can refer the case to USCIS’ fraud office. The new social media rule allows the fraud office to use a fictitious Facebook or Instagram account to check the applicant’s public postings. For example, maybe he lists himself as married to someone else.

This is a modest and fitting expansion of USCIS’ vetting capabilities. USCIS would still not be allowed to friend or follow any of the accounts it was researching. Any information kept private would also be out of sight to USCIS.

We understand that this will bring concerns about privacy or speech policing. It would be inappropriate, of course, for USCIS to apply extra scrutiny or deny benefits to someone whose Facebook profile were anti-Trump or pro-open borders. But it will be career fraud-detection officials looking at the accounts, not Trump (or future presidential) appointees. And this will take place only in the event of a referral by field agents. Perhaps more safeguards need to be erected to ensure immigrants aren’t punished for political views.

On privacy grounds, however, we are less worried, for two reasons. First, USCIS will have access only to public information. Second, while we generally worry that the government knows too much of our business, the place where prying is most appropriate is at our literal and proverbial gates. Americans govern themseves, and they have a right to know who is coming in. Our officials need tools to sniff out who may be entering on false pretenses.