Washington DC - US immigration authorities said Wednesday they will look at social media accounts and deny visas or residence permits to people who post content considered antisemitic by President Donald Trump's administration.

Posts defined as antisemitic will include social media activity in support of militant groups classified by the US as terrorists, including Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah, and Yemen's Houthis.

The move comes after the Trump administration canceled visas for students inside the US who have expressed support for Palestinian liberation, with the First Amendment of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for antisemitic violence and terrorism – think again. You are not welcome here," department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

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The US Citizenship and Immigration Services "will consider social media content that indicates an alien endorsing, espousing, promoting or supporting anti-Semitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations or other antisemitic activity as a negative factor" in determining benefits, the statement said.

The policy will take effect immediately and apply to student visas and requests for permanent resident "green cards" to stay in the US.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late last month that he had stripped visas for some 300 people and was doing so on a daily basis.

Rubio said that non-US citizens do not have the same rights as Americans and that it was at his discretion, not that of judges, to issue or deny visas.

A number of people stripped of visas contend they never voiced antipathy for Jewish people, with some saying they were targeted because they found themselves in the same place as Palestine solidarity protests, many of which feature strong Jewish participation.

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The most high-profile deportation case is that of Mahmoud Khalil, a leading figure in the Palestine liberation movement at Columbia University in New York.

He was taken to Louisiana ahead of deportation proceedings, despite being a US permanent resident.

The Trump administration has also stripped millions of dollars of federal funding to leading universities, with officials claiming they did not respond properly to combat antisemitism during protests against Israel's US-backed war on the people of Gaza.