US District Judge James Boasberg has temporarily stopped the State Department from enforcing a visa-restriction policy that the Trump administration used against non-US citizens working in online speech and platform-safety fields.
Boasberg granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, or CITR. The order blocks the department from applying the policy while the case continues. That is not a final ruling on the merits, but it means the government cannot use the challenged policy for now.
CITR says the policy had been used to try to revoke green cards and deport people who work on misinformation, disinformation, fact-checking, content moderation, compliance, and trust and safety. Those are broad buckets, which is the point of the dispute: the work at issue includes research and platform enforcement around online claims, not just some narrow category of government-facing conduct.
The policy, as described in Boasberg’s opinion, does not automatically require officials to deny a visa or remove someone from the country. Its mechanism is more indirect. It permits immigration investigations of people suspected of assisting foreign adversaries in efforts to shape public opinion by suppressing speech in the United States.
That wording gives the government room to treat content-moderation and trust-and-safety work as a possible immigration problem when officials believe the work is tied to foreign influence. CITR is challenging that approach, and Boasberg’s injunction keeps the State Department from acting on the policy until the lawsuit is resolved.
The distinction matters. A policy that merely authorizes investigations can still carry consequences for researchers and platform workers if it becomes the basis for immigration scrutiny, green-card revocation efforts, or deportation proceedings. Boasberg’s order addresses enforcement of that policy, rather than issuing a broad ruling on the legality of content moderation or fact-checking work itself.
For now, the practical result is straightforward: the State Department cannot enforce the challenged visa-restriction policy against the people and work categories CITR identified while the court case is pending. The litigation will continue, and the government will have another chance to defend the policy before any final judgment.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.
