The US government has led an extensive crackdown against pro-Palestine supporters in recent months — with many including international students facing arrest and deportation. Hundreds of students across the country have been arrested over the past few months after joining protests while others face deportation. Most of these names, ICE agents told a federal court on Wednesday, had been sourced from a pro-Israel website.
According to reports, senior ICE official Peter Hatch testified on Wednesday that his office had used ‘opaque, pro-Israeli websites’ that aimed to blacklist pro-Palestinian students and academics. More than 5000 people were reportedly scrutinised by a division of the Department of Homeland Security as the Trump government intensified its crackdown on college campuses. The the assistant director for the Office of Investigations within DHS told court that the ‘Tiger Team’ was formed after a March 2024 meeting of senior officials.
Multiple reports quoted Hatch as admitting that “most” of these names had come from the anonymously run Canary Mission website. The team had also relied on a similar list created by Betar — yet another anonymous pro-Israel group — as it worked “expeditiously” through the names. The ICE official confirmed that the work was done without any clear understanding of the exact methodology used by the websites to compile their lists. Hundreds of analysts had worked to screen the names with approximately 100 to 200 people eventually being identified. Analysts working on cases involving counterterrorism, cybercrimes and global trade were reportedly moved to the “Tiger Team” to work on compiling reports about demonstrators “because of the workload.”
What is Canary Mission?
The shadowy group had gained visibility around the same time as it began “uncovering foreign nationals” in response to Trump’s executive order against antisemitism. The platform claims that its mission is to to single out those who promote “hatred of the U.S.A., Israel and Jews on North American college campuses”. Canary Mission has posted the personal details and photos of thousands of people — all accused of anti-Israeli activism — since it was created a decade earlier. Civil rights activists have repeatedly warned that the site is doxing critics of Israel and providing a possible road map for immigration agents.