The Trump administration is ordering U.S. Department of Agriculture employees to investigate foreign scientists who collaborate with the agency on research materials for evidence of “subversive or criminal activities.”
The new directive, part of a broader effort to increase scrutiny of research done with foreign partners, requires workers in the agency’s research arm to use Google to conduct background checks on all foreign nationals collaborating with its scientists. The names of flagged scientists are sent to the agency’s national security experts, according to records reviewed by ProPublica.
At a meeting last month, USDA supervisors objected to the instructions, with one calling them “dystopian” and others expressing shock and confusion, according to an audio recording reviewed by ProPublica.
The USDA frequently collaborates with scientists based at U.S. and foreign universities. Some agency employees told ProPublica they were uncomfortable with the new requirement because they felt it could put these scientists in the administration’s crosshairs. Students and postdocs are particularly vulnerable because many of them are in the United States on temporary visas and green cards, employees said.
Jennifer Jones, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the directive a “return to McCarthyism” that could encourage scientists to avoid working with the “best and brightest” researchers around the world.
“Asking scientists to spy on and report on their fellow co-authors” is a “classic mark of authoritarianism,” Jones said. The Union of Concerned Scientists is an organization that advocates for scientific integrity.
Jones, who had not heard of the instructions until contacted by ProPublica, said she had never witnessed such extreme policies under previous administrations or during her former career as an academic scientist.
The new policy applies to pending scientific publications co-authored by employees of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, which conducts research on crop yields, invasive species, plant genetics and other agricultural issues.
The USDA directed its employees to block agency researchers from collaborating or publishing papers with scientists from “countries of concern,” including China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.
But the agency also reviews scientists from countries that are not considered “countries of concern” before deciding whether USDA researchers can publish papers with them. Employees include the names of foreign co-authors from countries like Canada and Germany on lists shared with the ministry. Office of Homeland Securityaccording to records reviewed by ProPublica. This office leads USDA’s security initiatives and includes a division that works with federal intelligence agencies. The records do not say what the office plans to do with the lists of names.
Asked about the changes, the USDA sent a statement noting that during his first term, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum designed to strengthen protections for U.S.-funded research in the federal government from interference by foreign governments. “USDA, under the Biden administration, has spent four years failing to implement this directive,” the statement said. The agency said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins last year introduced “long-needed changes to USDA’s research enterprise, including a ban on authoring a publication with a foreign national from a country of concern.”
International research has been essential to the work of the Agricultural Research Service, according to a USDA website page Last updated in 2024: “Whether it’s learning how to mitigate diseases before they reach the United States, testing models and crops in various growing conditions, or accessing resources not available in the United States, cooperation with international partners provides solutions to current and future agricultural challenges. »
Yet the U.S. government has long been concerned that agricultural researchers act as spies, sometimes rightly so. In 2016, Chinese scientist Mo Hailong was sentenced to three years in prison for conspiracy to steal patent corn. And in 2022, Xiang Haitao, admitted to stealing a trade secret from Monsanto.
National security Questions have also been raised about the recent increase in foreign ownership of agricultural land. In 2022, Congress appropriated funds for a center to train American researchers on how to protect their data in international collaborations.
Since Trump took office last year, foreign researchers have faced increasing obstacles. In March, a French researcher going to a conference was refused entry in the United States after an airport search of his phone revealed messages critical of Trump. National Institutes of Health blocked researchers from China and Russia and other “countries of concern” to access various biomedical databases last spring. And in August, the Proposed Department of Homeland Security shorten the length of time foreign students can stay in the country.
But the USDA’s latest instructions represent a significant escalation, casting suspicion on all researchers outside the United States and requiring agency staff to vet the foreign nationals with whom they collaborate. It is unclear whether employees of other federal agencies received similar instructions.
The new USDA policy was announced internally in November and follows a July memo of Rollins who highlighted the national security risks of working with scientists who are not U.S. citizens.
“Foreign competitors benefit from USDA-funded projects, receiving loans that support foreign businesses and grants that enable foreign competitors to undermine U.S. economic and strategic interests,” Rollins wrote in the memo. “Preventing this is the responsibility of every USDA employee.” The memo called on the department to “put America first” by taking a number of steps, including reviewing and listing the agency’s arrangements for working with foreign researchers and prohibiting USDA employees from participating in foreign scientist recruitment programs, “malicious or not.”
Rollins, a lawyer who studied agricultural development, co-founded the pro-Trump party America First Policy Institute before being hired to run the agency.
There have long been restrictions on collaboration with researchers from certain countries, such as Iran and China. But these new instructions create blanket prohibitions on working with scientists from “countries of concern.”
In a late November email to Agricultural Research Service staff members at a regional office, a research manager asked managers to immediately stop any research with scientists who come from — or collaborate with institutions in — “countries of concern.”
The email also asked employees to reject articles written by foreign authors if they covered “sensitive topics” such as “diversity” or “climate change.” National security concerns were cited as another cause for rejection, with USDA research service employees instructed to ask whether a foreigner could use the research against American farmers.
In the audio recording of the December meeting, some employees expressed concern over instructions to investigate fellow scientists. The “part of figuring out if they’re foreign…by googling is very dystopian,” said one person at the meeting, which involved management of the Agricultural Research Service.
Facing questions about how to verify a co-author’s citizenship, another person at the meeting said researchers should do their best with a Google search, then put the name on the list “and let Homeland Security do their research behind the scenes.”
Rollins’ July memo states that, within 60 days of receiving a list of “pending agreements” involving foreign persons or entities, the USDA’s Office of Homeland Security and its offices of the Chief Scientist and Legal Counsel should decide which agreements to terminate. USDA laid off 70 employees of “countries of concern” last summer following the policy change outlined in the memo, NPR reported.
The USDA and Department of Homeland Security have refused to answer questions about what happens to foreign researchers flagged by staff, beyond the risk of having their research papers rejected.
The documents also suggested new guidance would be released on Jan. 1, but USDA employees interviewed by ProPublica said verification work was continuing and they had not received any written updates. The staff spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Scientists are often evaluated based on their results in new scientific research. Delaying or refusing publication of pending articles could derail a researcher’s career. Over the past 40 years, the number of international collaborations among scientists has increased across all fields, according to Caroline Wagner, professor emeritus of public policy at Ohio State University. “The more elite the researcher, the more likely they are to work internationally,” said Wagner, who has spent more than 25 years researching international collaboration in science and technology.
Changes in how the USDA approaches collaboration with foreign researchers, she said, “will certainly reduce the novelty, the innovative nature of science and diminish those knowledge flows that have been extremely productive for science in recent years.”