Welcome to Pleasantville
The Color is Fading
Remember the late 90s movie Pleasantville, where a dull black-and-white world gradually shifts into color as the namesake town and its inhabitants discover joy, self-expression, and freedom? USCIS is apparently producing a sequel—and opted to run it in reverse.
Scroll through the agency's Instagram account posts from April to May 2024 (see below), and you'll find a vibrant mosaic of naturalization ceremonies, cultural celebrations, and helpful resources. Fast forward a year, and it's like someone drained the color from your screen. The 2025 feed is dominated by hostile warnings, random enforcement news…and far fewer smiling faces.
If you weren’t already familiar, you might assume USCIS was a law enforcement agency from a quick look through its recent social media presence. And while it’s a reasonable assumption, you’d likely be surprised to learn USCIS is actually an administrative agency, primarily responsible for administering form-based applications for immigration benefits.
According to the USCIS website’s “What We Do” page, agency services include:
“Citizenship (Includes the Related Naturalization Process)
Immigration of Family Members
Working in the U.S.
Verifying an Individual’s Legal Right to Work in the United States (E-Verify)
Humanitarian Programs
Adoptions
Civic Assimilation
Genealogy
As we’ll see, the changes in tone and theme on social media aren’t just an aesthetic makeover. The transformation is a helpful way to visualize the sweeping policy shifts impacting millions of immigrants and visa holders—and their families, friends, and coworkers. What USCIS and DHS leadership won’t announce in policy memoranda, they reveal through Instagram posts and photo ops.
A Brief Intro to Social Media and DHS
The use of social media in U.S. immigration screening has evolved dramatically over the past 15 years, starting with a June 2012 DHS Directive and implementation instructions titled "Privacy Policy for Operational Use of Social Media.” The policy established a framework for the collection of personal identifiable information (PII) and formalized adherence to Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs) initially introduced to DHS in a 2008 memo.
Social Media Operational Use Template (SMOUT)
The 2012 privacy policy introduced the Social Media Operational Use Template (“smoot”) as a centralized review and approval process for social media monitoring at DHS. Overseen by the DHS Privacy Office and its Chief Privacy Officer (CPO), SMOUTs are typically required by DHS component agencies like USCIS or ICE before any new monitoring activities begin. This process is designed to ensure privacy considerations, legal authority, and compliance documentation are formally assessed before sensitive data is collected.
San Bernardino
Following the San Bernardino terrorist attack in December 2015, DHS initiated pilot programs to scale capacity to screen social media accounts, after officials discovered the perpetrators had sent private messages before their visas were approved in which they indicated an intent to do harm.
These pilots, and subsequent DHS programs, have aimed to automate the data collection and analysis processes involved, therefore reducing the human resources needed for manual completion. Yet their effectiveness has been questioned repeatedly since.
A review released in 2017 by the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) indicated the post-San Bernardino pilot programs “need increased rigor to ensure scalability and long-term success1.”
In reviewing the pilot, USCIS concluded that the [redacted] tool was not a viable option for automated social media screening and that manual review was more effective at identifying accounts. USCIS based its conclusion on the [redacted] tool’s low “match confidence.” – DHS OIG-17-40
What’s Your Handle?
In May 2019, the U.S. State Department updated its online visa application system, Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC), to request social media handles from applicants for nonimmigrant (temporary) and immigrant (green card) visas. These changes to the DS-160 and DS-260 digital forms marked a first attempt by DOS to systematically collect this account information from applicants.
Later in 2019, USCIS signaled a reversal from previous policy in order to allow officers to create fake social media accounts as part of surveillance efforts. In a privacy review regarding the policy change, USCIS affirmed it ”(…) will only access social media content that is publicly available to all users of the social media platform.”
A 2020/2021 audit and report from the DHS Office of Inspector General concluded the department’s Privacy Office “(…) has not conducted adequate oversight to ensure consistent execution of its privacy program across DHS components.”
The report’s audit findings go on to explain:
Without such measures, DHS may not be able to identify and address new privacy risks in existing systems and programs or prevent inappropriate dissemination of PII. – DHS OIG-21-06
A Brennan Center report ("DHS Social Media Monitoring FOIA Documents”) published in September 2023, which included a review of SMOUTs released in response to FOIA requests, revealed internal policies and previously unreported documentation across several DHS component agencies, including USCIS. This included a 2017 policy change at the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate, allowing FDNS officers to use fake social media accounts in their investigations—two years earlier than the broader USCIS policy shift in 2019.2
Meanwhile, a September 2022 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on USCIS, “Additional Actions Needed to Manage Fraud Risks” revealed some performance data related to FDNS screening activities:
“During fiscal years 2017 through 2021, the volume of completed social media checks ranged between approximately 9,740 and 13,860 per year.”
“During fiscal years 2017 through 2021, between 1 and 5 percent of social media checks FDNS completed annually identified information of interest.”
In a July 2023 Directive (and Instruction) 262-19, "DHS Use of Social Media and Other Third-Party Digital Services”, DHS finally addressed the use of social media for public communication purposes. The directive provides formal guidance and instructions for how the department publishes content to official social media accounts, and placed oversight authority with the DHS Office of Public Affairs (OPA).
What makes the 2025 shift following Trump’s January inauguration particularly significant, including the April 9, 2025 USCIS news release “DHS to Begin Screening Aliens’ Social Media Activity for Antisemitism”, is its open declaration that social media will be used as an enforcement tool, rather than just a vetting mechanism. And the Trump administration has emphasized this new system by directly broadcasting enforcement priorities through the same platforms it is monitoring.
A Contrast of Data
I reviewed a total of 121 USCIS social media posts across two distinct periods—April 1st through May 1st in 2024 and 2025—and labeled each post by topic to help document what and how things have changed. The numbers tell a story as clear as any policy memo or presidential order.
![Number of Posts: 80 ([Up arrow] 95.1% from previous year](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4eZA!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd66ab588-3d13-4338-bff8-ef1251d5c5e3_432x186.png "Number of Posts: 80 ([Up arrow] 95.1% from previous year")
First, let’s look at the overall numbers and the primary topics for each post. In the 2024 period, the USCIS instagram account posted 41 times, with a maximum of 3 posts in a single day. In the same period of 2025, 80 total posts were shared by the account, including three days with 5 total posts.
As for the topics of these posts: admittedly, my simple classification system leaves some room for overlap and ambiguity.3
“Immigration services” is a broad stroke at covering posts about naturalization ceremonies, cultural impact and civic engagement, etc.—content that would fall under the traditional ‘services’ outlined on the USCIS “What We Do” page.
Whereas “Educational Content” covers posts like the #USCISAnswers series and other FAQs and links to online resources. The “Agency Operations” bucket includes posts about USCIS job openings and recruitment, office closures, and other operational matters. “Compliance and Legal Requirements” covers posts about specific compliance requirements, including Change of Address form and registration reminders.
The Starkest Contrast
As you might expect, even the vocabulary reveals new organizational priorities. When you look at the most common words used across the two periods (filtering to remove common filler words), you see a shift away from phrases including “visit”, “naturalization”, “visa”, and “ceremony”, and the emergence of words like “safe”, “alien”, “address”, “ICE”, and “security”.
Naturalization ceremonies were a a centerpiece of previous USCIS content, including 13 posts about these events in the 2024 period. Celebrating new Americans for taking the oath to become U.S. citizens, these posts often recognized the cultural or local significance of these events and their participants.
While the overall frequency of posts doubled, naturalization was only mentioned twice in the 31 day period of 2025—both in reference to arrests that tangentially involved naturalization applications. If you were to refer solely to recent social media presence, you’d be completely unaware that a primary USCIS responsibility is managing this critical piece of the U.S. citizenship system, and the rights and privileges it affords.
Meanwhile, enforcement actions and security were completely absent in the 2024 period but became the dominant narrative in 2025—with 44 posts including content on specific arrests, fraud detection operations, and USCIS’ commitment to “making America safe again”. In fact, that phrase was used in 27 of the 80 posts.
An agency which once celebrated citizenship has pivoted to showcasing random apprehensions and deportations conducted by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the FBI. It’s impossible not to question whether this explicit adjustment in communications strategy is simply laying the groundwork for a fundamental redefinition of the USCIS institutional mission. Like Pleasantville in reverse, the shift from vibrant diversity to stern uniformity likely reflects a major reorientation of the agency’s purpose: enforcement over engagement, compliance over celebration, and warnings over welcomes.
Seeking Answers: Our FOIA Initiative
To understand how a dramatic shift in messaging was implemented internally, we've filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with USCIS, requesting documentation of:
Social media policy directives issued since January 20, 2025;
Internal communications regarding content strategy changes;
Approval procedures for social media posts;
Meeting minutes or communications discussing the agency's public messaging strategy;
Directives related to coordination between USCIS and other agencies for social media messaging;
Personnel changes in communications departments during this period.
With this request, we hope to uncover whether this transformation represents formal policy implementation and structural changes, or an informal shift in institutional culture and priorities.
The Sequel Nobody Asked For
Like other bad sequels, this USCIS reboot lacks the heart of the original. The vibrant, diverse America celebrated in 2024 has been replaced with a monochrome dystopia focused on threats of enforcement, compliance, and consequences. And the cast? DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and Acting Directors Todd Lyons (ICE) and Kika Scott (USCIS), are certainly no Reese or Tobey.
Random threats and typos aside, the social media presence of USCIS has become a key source of agency-related policy changes and priorities. For anyone navigating our immigration system today, understanding this shift is obviously important.
For the rest of us, it’s also critical we understand how our government monitors its citizens and immigrants alike, across social media and other digital channels. The Instagram data makes one thing abundantly clear: this isn't just a revamped communications strategy. It's a fundamental reimagining of America's relationship with immigration and surveillance.
Also from DHS OIG-17-40 (February 17, 2017):
DHS and the task force are planning department-wide use of social media for screening based on these pilots. Because components are not measuring their pilots against clear success criteria, DHS may not be able to make informed decisions when it designs its social media screening program. The task force needs to better manage ongoing efforts to pilot social media screening to help ensure an effective and successful social media screening program in the future.
For a timeline view of DHS pilot programs and related policy, check out this great resource from the Brennan Center.