US President Donald Trump is set to sign a memorandum that will launch a “National Vetting Centre” with the aim of ramping up checks on visitors to the US.
The document will give the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies six months to establish the centre, which is aimed at improving communication between different federal bodies and implement what the President has called "extreme vetting."
It is not clear how it will affect the way visitors and immigrants are assessed when they enter the country.
The centre will not require any new funding and no new authority will be established, according to CNN.
An official told the network the centre would focus on individuals inside the US, including those who were subject to deportation proceedings, as well as visitors.
A privacy and civil liberties panel to oversee the new centre’s activities is also supposed to be established.
Mr Trump has prioritised immigration reform since entering the White House, after calling for “extreme vetting” while on the Presidential campaign trail, claiming that current immigration controls and investigations of people's backgrounds do not go far enough to control influx.
He has repeatedly called for tighter controls on immigration, including halting refugee admissions and severely restricting travel and immigration from certain Muslim-majority countries through the controversial travel ban his first week in office in 2017, which triggered thousands of protesters in US airports.
The order has since been revised twice on objections from federal district courts that it was unconstitutional since it discriminated on the basis of religion. As a result, the administration added North Korea and Venezuela to the list which also includes Somalia, Chad, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Syria.
Critics argue that those policies are inhumane or discriminatory, pointing out that the refugee admissions process already involved thorough vetting.
The US leader ramped up his rhetoric in the aftermath of a number of terrorist attacks.
After a truck was used to mow down pedestrians in New York November 2017, Mr Trump tweeted: “I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!”
Deepa Iyer, a civil rights activist and author of We Too, Sing America, told The Independent the centre is "just another tool for this Administration to profile, target, and discriminate against brown and black immigrants."
Ms Iyer said it was "part and parcel" of the administration's overall immigration agenda which has included a proposed 2,000-mile border wall with Mexico in addition to the travel bans and a number of deportations of immigrants who have been living in the US for decades and had received reprieves to stay under previous administrations.
David Bier, an immigration policy analyst for the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, told The Independent that the establishment of the centre does not exactly jive with the President's focus on a strong economy.
The focus on stemming terrorism, which is "such a small threat" in terms of immigration, will "inevitably harm the economy a significant amount" given the economic contributions of immigrants.
He also noted that measures such as the centre and extreme vetting also "discourages travel," another hit to the US economy.
