美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Administration Weighs Increased Scrutiny Of Refugees' Social Media

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

President Trump¹ is expected to issue a new executive order next week on refugees and other people coming to the U.S. from foreign countries. While we don't yet know the details of what the Trump administration's extreme vetting² will involve, one element that keeps coming up is social media. Here's what Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told NPR's Rachel Martin on MORNING EDITION earlier this month.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

JOHN KELLY: Someone comes in and says, I want to come to the United States. Then we ask them to give us a list of websites that they visit and the passwords to get on those websites to see what they're looking at. This is...

RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE³: You would require that of anyone whose looking to immigrate⁴ to the U.S.

KELLY: Well, we're considering that, yeah - social media to see what they tweet.

SHAPIRO: In fact, the government has already been looking at social media from some people applying to come to the U.S. NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre is here to tell us more. Hi, Greg.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.

SHAPIRO: When did this type of screening begin?

MYRE: So around the end of 2015, up until that point, very few Syrian refugees were coming to the U.S. And then over the last year or so, it was ramped⁵ up to about a thousand a month. And so this is when the vetting on social media began. Now, we spoke⁶ to Leon Rodriguez. Until last month, he was the head of Citizenship⁷ and Immigration Services. And here's what he had to say about the program.

LEON RODRIGUEZ: Initially⁸ we were focused on Syrian males who had some sort of flag in their application, and over time, we're expanding the universe of people whose social media we examine to include larger numbers of Syrian applicants⁹ as well as Iraq applicants. And what we would look at would be Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

MYRE: So these accounts are mostly all in Arabic, so it was very time-consuming. He said it could take up to eight hours to go through one account, and they didn't really have the staffing to do it. But they've been hiring and training and have become more efficient.

SHAPIRO: What were they looking for when they went through these accounts?

MYRE: So we ask, something like just extreme religiosity, somebody who's very, very pious¹⁰. And he said absolutely not. That would not be a flag. And we ask, what about a video, a gruesome ISIS video of a beheading, for example. And he said, yes, that would absolutely raise a flag, and they might - he would expect an agent to put a hold on it, and it might even lead to a rejection¹¹ of a refugee application.

SHAPIRO: Do we know whether the Trump administration in the first month has started doing anything differently?

MYRE: So Trump's executive order calls for a country-by-country review - not just the seven countries who we're familiar with but every country. So there could be all sorts of changes in the works or perhaps challenges and courts blocking them. And we heard John Kelly talk about possibly asking for passwords. And this is something they haven't been doing so far.

But I did speak with the Department of Homeland Security and asked them what have we seen that's different. The only new wrinkle so far seems to be - on an application form - is asking, what is your social media handle?

SHAPIRO: How effective is this form of screening?

MYRE: Don't really know yet. It's hard to say. Rodriguez said it's something they would like to - he would recommend that it be continued and even expanded until they can determine how effective it is. But so far, they just don't know. It's going to take a little more time.

SHAPIRO: If it becomes known over time that social media accounts are part of the screening, wouldn't people just go through and either delete things that might raise flags or create fake social media accounts?

MYRE: Absolutely. This is one of the things Rodriguez raised - is that if people know this is being looked at, it may have a chilling effect. They may not post. They may delete. They may create false accounts. And again, this big discussion we're having has all focused pretty much on refugees and some immigrants. We need to remember; this is a very small fraction of the overall number of people coming to the U.S. Refugees are quite literally¹² 1 in a thousand. For every refugee who's coming to the United States, you have 999 other people who are not refugees.

SHAPIRO: Coming over on work visas or student visas or tourist visas, for example.

MYRE: Exactly, and so this would be an enormous lift, enormous manpower increase to be checking literally a thousand times as many people for their social media accounts. So it's probably going to have to be used in a very limited way even if they think it's pretty effective.

SHAPIRO: NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre. Thanks, Greg.

MYRE: Thanks, Ari.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 vetting   

n.数据检查[核对，核实]v.审查（某人过去的记录、资格等）( vet的现在分词 )；调查；检查；诊疗

参考例句：

• Scripts had to be submitted to Ministry of Information officials for vetting. 必须把脚本提交给信息部官员审查。 来自互联网
• Their purpose in clicking deeper into a site is one of vetting. 他们深入点击网站的目的是一种诊疗。 来自互联网

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 immigrate   

v.（从外国）移来，移居入境

参考例句：

• 10,000 people are expected to immigrate in the next two years.接下来的两年里预计有10，000人会移民至此。
• Only few plants can immigrate to the island.只有很少的植物能够移植到这座岛上。

5 ramped   

土堤斜坡( ramp的过去式和过去分词 )； 斜道； 斜路； （装车或上下飞机的）活动梯

参考例句：

• With the arrival of George Lucas, the pace has ramped up. 随着乔治·卢卡斯的到来，速度大大加快。
• They also sold corporate bonds as the global financial crisis ramped up. 在全球金融危机加剧之际，他们还抛售了公司债券。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

8 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

9 applicants   

申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
• He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。

10 pious   

adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的

参考例句：

• Alexander is a pious follower of the faith.亚历山大是个虔诚的信徒。
• Her mother was a pious Christian.她母亲是一个虔诚的基督教徒。

11 rejection   

n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃

参考例句：

• He decided not to approach her for fear of rejection.他因怕遭拒绝决定不再去找她。
• The rejection plunged her into the dark depths of despair.遭到拒绝使她陷入了绝望的深渊。

12 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。