Barring foreign regulators and researchers from the United States for 'censoring Americans'

The five are generally barred from entering the United States. The Secretary said the department stood ready to expand the list if other foreign actors did not reverse course, and noted that DHS can initiate removal proceedings against certain individuals, rendering them deportable. The European Commission requested clarification and said it would respond to defend its regulatory autonomy; the French president called the measures intimidation and coercion.

The countervailing case is real and should be stated first. Foreign nationals have no right to enter the United States. Visa determinations under section 212(a)(3)(C) rest on the Secretary's judgment about foreign policy consequences and are largely unreviewable by courts. The European Union's Digital Services Act and the United Kingdom's Online Safety Act do impose content obligations on American platforms, and the administration frames the policy as protecting the speech of Americans against extraterritorial regulation. A visa restriction is not a criminal charge.

On May 28, 2025 the State Department announced a policy of restricting entry by foreign nationals it deemed responsible for censoring protected speech in the United States. On December 23 the Secretary of State applied it to five people: Thierry Breton, the former European Commissioner responsible for digital affairs, whom the department called the mastermind of the Digital Services Act and who had clashed publicly with Elon Musk; Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate; Clare Melford of the Global Disinformation Index; and Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg of HateAid, a German nonprofit that provides legal support to victims of online abuse. The Secretary said they had led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints, called them radical activists and weaponized NGOs, and determined their presence would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.

Two facts complicate the framing that this reaches only foreign nationals abroad. The Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, naming the five on social media, said Ahmed had been designated in part for his organization's 2022 report identifying twelve accounts responsible for most anti-vaccine content online, one of which belonged to the man who is now Secretary of Health and Human Services. And Ahmed is a lawful permanent resident of the United States. He sued the Homeland Security Secretary the next day, and on December 25 a federal judge entered a temporary restraining order barring his arrest or detention pending the case. That order concerns his detention, not the visa policy itself, and no court has reviewed the policy. This record is Tier B. The related domestic actions against speech are documented at MED-01 and MED-06, the removal of noncitizen students for their speech at SUB-03, and the removal of the CDC director at PRG-16.

Documented; the State Department's own announcement and designations, and a temporary restraining order

The visa policy was announced May 28, 2025 under section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows exclusion where entry would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences. Visa determinations are broadly discretionary and generally not subject to judicial review. On December 25, 2025 a federal judge entered a temporary restraining order barring the arrest or detention of Imran Ahmed, a lawful permanent resident, pending his suit against the Homeland Security Secretary

Policy announced 2025-05-28; five Europeans named 2025-12-23; Ahmed sued 2025-12-24; temporary restraining order 2025-12-25