US Uses Hate-Group to Deport Palestine Advocates – World news

The Trump administration has officially admitted that immigration authorities relied on Canary Mission to identify students supporting Palestinian rights for deportation, according to Al Jazeera.

During a recent court hearing, Peter Hatch, an agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), testified that a special “tiger team” had been assembled to pursue the removal of pro-Palestinian college students.

Hatch told the court that tips were sometimes relayed verbally, and that the team scrutinized nearly 5,000 Canary Mission profiles cataloguing critics of Israel.

When Judge William Young asked if ICE had received a list directly from the site, Hatch replied, “yes.”

Heba Gowayed, a sociology professor at the City University of New York, condemned the government’s dependence on Canary Mission as “absurd and fascist,” describing it as an anonymous blacklist used to harass activists.

“Canary Mission is a doxxing website that specifically targets people for language that they deem to be pro-Palestinian,” Gowayed said.

The crackdown escalated after Trump returned to the White House in January and signed executive orders calling for the surveillance and punishment of non-citizens engaged in campus protests.

One order declared it US policy to “combat anti-Semitism vigorously,” mandating federal agencies to monitor foreign students and staff.

In March, Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and permanent resident married to a US citizen, became the first high-profile deportation target.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked a rarely used clause of the Immigration and Nationality Act to remove Khalil, claiming his presence harmed US foreign policy.

Since then, ICE has detained other students.

Some left the country to avoid jail.

Others, including Khalil, are fighting expulsion in court.

Palestinian rights groups and free speech advocates have denounced the campaign as a political witch hunt.

Despite these objections, the administration insists it has broad discretion over immigration enforcement.

Before the presidential election, the Heritage Foundation released a strategy document named Project Esther that called for rooting out Palestine solidarity efforts on US campuses.

Project Esther explicitly recommended using Canary Mission to locate visa violations among Israel’s critics.

For years, Canary Mission has posted names, photos and personal information about activists while shielding its own backers.

Although officials claimed they were targeting students linked to violence or extremism, none of those detained faced criminal charges.

Some had merely voiced criticism of Israeli policies.

One example is Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish scholar at Tufts University, who was targeted solely for co-authoring an editorial urging divestment from Israeli companies.

Andrew Ross, a professor at New York University, said the administration’s reliance on Canary Mission showed “sloppy” and biased enforcement.

“They’re looking for material they can manipulate and spin to portray the person as anti-Semitic,” said Ross, himself profiled by the site.

He called the effort a “witch hunt.”

Canary Mission, founded in 2015, portrays any criticism of Israel as dangerous bigotry.

Profiles often rank high in internet searches, harming careers and reputations.

“It has caused people to lose jobs. It has caused people all kinds of adverse effects,” Gowayed said.

Ross added that targeted individuals frequently endure threats and harassment.

Haaretz reported in 2018 that Israeli authorities have used Canary Mission to detain and bar visitors.

The Forward revealed that the site is linked to an Israeli non-profit, Megamot Shalom, and funded by wealthy American donors.

Palestine Legal said the US government was engaged in racist repression.

“Under Trump, ICE has now publicly admitted they are abducting pro-Palestinian student activists based on an anonymously-run blacklist site,” the group wrote.

J Street, which identifies as pro-Israel and pro-peace, also condemned the administration’s tactics.

“Canary Mission is feeding the Trump Administration’s agenda, weaponizing antisemitism to surveil and attempt to deport student activists,” it said.

The State Department declined to comment, referring reporters to Rubio’s previous statement:

“If you’re coming here to stir up trouble on our campuses, we will deny you a visa. And if you have a visa, and we find you, we will revoke it.”

In court, Hatch admitted the government also consulted another far-right website he could not name.

When asked if it was Betar — a group linked to the extremist Kahanist movement — Hatch replied, “That sounds right.”

Gowayed called the campaign an “egregious overstep and distortion of any kind of notion of justice or legality,” adding:

“What is more troubling to me is they don’t know which hate group they used.”