'This is unamerican': Trump's new green card crackdown unleashes tsunami of backlash

Hearing that the Trump administration plans to deny green cards for immigrants who express their political opinions has commentators sounding the alarm.

Journalist Hamed Aleaziz reported on Saturday that migrants will be denied green cards by the Trump administration if they took part in pro-Palestinian campus protests, criticized Israel online or desecrated an American flag.

The report generated outrage on social media.

"This is unamerican. Republican fascism is unamerican," Bluesky account John Pettus wrote. "We need to drive these fascists from public life with prosecutions for crimes and ostracism for immorality."

"Every single one of these actions—protesting, posting, desecrating the flag—is protected under the First Amendment," the Bluesky account Two Arrows wrote. Other accounts likewise saw the move as an attack on free speech.

"What the United States government is doing is clearly breaking the Constitution that it is legally required to follow," writer Jón Frímann posted. "Only illegal governments don't follow the basic laws of its own country. I hope citizens of the United States can fix this situation."

Others saw it as overly restrictive immigration requirements. Author Patrick Chovanec argued, "If you’re not involved in terrorist activities, I think your views on Israel or any other ally are irrelevant to your immigration status. There are plenty of Irish who have no love for the U.K."

Immigration lawyer Elissa Taub described how the requirement will complicate her job and force her to tell her clients that they "can't say anything remotely critical" about Israel or Judaism.

"As a Jewish immigration lawyer, I don't even know what to do with this. It exhausts me," Taub wrote. "How do I answer clients' questions about this policy without sounding totally self-interested or worse, bigoted?"