NEW YORK—The U.S. government last night released a State Department memo in a case challenging an immigration policy that targets noncitizen researchers, advocates, fact-checkers, and trust and safety workers for visa denials, revocations, detention, and deportation based on their work. The memo details the State Department’s May 2025 announcement of new visa restrictions against individuals “who are responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the United States,” as well as their immediate family members.

The following can be attributed to Carrie DeCell, senior staff attorney and legislative advisor at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University: 

"The State Department is excluding tech researchers from the United States because of their constitutionally protected work, and this newly disclosed memo only underscores the unbounded scope and unconstitutionality of the policy. That the Trump administration claims its censorial policy is intended to combat censorship is the height of doublespeak."

In March, the Knight Institute and Protect Democracy filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research (CITR) challenging the constitutionality of the policy. The complaint argues that the policy violates the First Amendment and chills independent research and reporting about social media and other internet platforms.

Read more about the case here.

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, [email protected]