June 23, 2025

Wyden, Markey Demand Answers from Trump Administration Using AI and Other Technology to Label People as National Security Risks

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, (D-Ore.) said today that he and Edward J. Markey, (D-Mass.) are demanding answers from the Trump administration about its use of artificial intelligence and other technologies to label people as a risk to U.S. national security. 

Wyden and Markey called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to reverse the Trump administration's decision to expand its social media screening of visa applicants. Those policy changes seem intended to chill dissent, discriminate against particular viewpoints, and punish individuals for speech the Administration finds objectionable. 

In the second letter, the lawmakers requested that the Government Accountability Office investigate the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice’s use of AI technologies to label individuals as potential threats to the public, including automated analysis of content people post online.  

In their letter to Secretaries Rubio and Noem, the lawmakers wrote, “Even in an administration intending to conduct social media screening in a fair and unbiased manner, the risks of mistakes are high. In an administration with malign intentions, these social media screening tools guarantee abuse.”

The lawmakers continued, “We are deeply concerned that State and DHS’s respective new policies around social media screening are a thinly veiled effort to discriminate against visa applicants and other noncitizens seeking to pursue their studies or obtain asylum or lawful residence in the United States.”

In their letter to the GAO, the lawmakers’ raised serious concerns about DHS and DOJ’s use of “technologies that make dubious automated inferences about individuals’ emotions, attitudes, and intentions,” including the administration’s deployment of “AI to scan the social media accounts of tens of thousands of student visa holders and flag some as supposedly supporting terrorist organizations.”

The lawmakers continued,  “Furthermore, since many criminal statutes require proof of intent or other state of mind, using AI in this way could lead prosecutors to bring more severe charges against individuals on the basis of pseudoscientific evidence. This technology is also ripe for deliberate abuse, providing a pretext for government officials to target groups they disfavor.”

Senators Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., cosigned both letters. 

Representatives Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash cosigned the GAO letter.

The text of the letter to Secretaries Rubio and Noem is available here. 

The text of the letter to GAO is available here.