1. United States
2. Ore.
3. Letter

I’m writing to urge you to oppose the Department of Homeland Security’s proposal to require nearly all foreign visitors—including travelers coming for the 2026 World Cup—to submit up to five years of social-media history, along with extensive personal data, as a condition of entry to the United States. This policy is being framed as a security measure, but the evidence simply does not support that conclusion. In fact, multiple government and independent reviews indicate the opposite: • DHS’s own Inspector General found that prior social-media-screening pilot programs had no measurable criteria for success and could not demonstrate that such screening helps identify threats. • FOIA-released documents show that social-media vetting of visa applicants has never been proven effective as a national-security tool. • Academic research on digital threat prediction shows extremely high false-positive rates when screening mass populations—meaning innocent travelers would be disproportionately flagged. There is also no public data showing that foreign visitors pose a significant risk of violent crime during international events. Studies more commonly show tourists are victims, not perpetrators. In other words, this proposal targets a population that has not been demonstrated to pose a higher threat. Meanwhile, the costs—constitutional, economic, and diplomatic—are significant: • Chilling effects on free expression: Requiring visitors to disclose years of social-media activity will deter lawful speech and political participation, not only for travelers but for the Americans who communicate with them. • Discriminatory impact: These systems are known to disproportionately misidentify or over-flag individuals based on language, cultural context, or political expression. • Economic harm: The U.S. is co-hosting the World Cup, and this proposal may discourage international travel and tourism at a time when global confidence in American openness is already strained. • Expanded surveillance architecture: Once built for foreign visitors, these systems tend to expand. The American public deserves safeguards before any such infrastructure is put in place. I strongly urge you to oppose DHS’s social-media disclosure proposal and support legislation that: 1. Prohibits bulk, suspicionless social-media screening of travelers; 2. Requires evidence-based evaluation of any security program before implementation; and 3. Protects the free-speech and privacy rights of Americans and visitors alike. Security is important—but surveillance that doesn’t work, that chills speech, and that targets millions of innocent people is not security. Please reject this proposal and work toward policies grounded in evidence, civil liberties, and the welcoming values our nation should represent.