How Trump Administration Used Shadowy Website To Target Activists For Deportation

1. How Trump Administration Used Shadowy Website To Target Activists For Deportation

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• The Trump administration used a pro-Israel website to identify pro-Palestine academics for deportation
• The Department of Homeland Security created a team that reported 100 foreign students in protests
• Canary Mission listed 75 individuals and tracks pro-Palestinian academics' activities and profiles

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The Trump administration had taken the assistance of an anonymously-run pro-Israel website for identifying pro-Palestine academics, in order to deport them, according to newly unsealed court documents. The website has been accused of doxxing.

The court records show that the Department of Homeland Security had assembled a "tiger team" of intelligence analysts that made a report of 100 foreign students and scholars that participated in pro-Palestine protests.

Canary Mission, is a shadowy website whose goal is to expose anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment on college campuses. It also posts photos and social media profiles of pro-Palestinian academics and logs their protest activities. The website identified 75 of those people, per a deposition testimony. However, the website responded that it "had no contact with this administration or the previous administration", Politico reported.

"We document individuals and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews. We investigate hatred across the political spectrum, including the far-right, far-left and anti-Israel activists," the group said.

Immigration lawyers and pro-Palestine activists feared that the Trump administration had not been doing independent research and just picking names from the Canary Mission. Peter Hatch, Homeland Security official testified that although the site was significant to dig out names, the information was independently verified. "Canary Mission is not a part of the U.S. government," he said. "It is not information that we would take as an authoritative source. We don't work with the individuals who create the website. I don't know who creates the website", he said.

He also added that, "Many of the names or even most of the names came from that website, but we were getting names and leads from many different websites."

Apart from Canary Mission, there was another group called Betar US, through which other leads came. The group also used the slogan "Jews fight back" and profiles pro-Palestinian activists on its website. The website on X had posted that they had provided a "deport list" to Trump officials, mere days after Trump returned to the White House in January.

Mohammad khalil says Zionists don't deserve to live while he's on a visa ⁦@Columbia⁩. It's 10 pm and ⁦@ICEgov⁩ is aware of his home address and whereabouts. We have provided all his information to multiple contacts. He's on our deport list! pic.twitter.com/bfHxhdujGF

Trump aide Stephen Miller was deeply involved in the effort to revoke visas of pro-Palestinian academics, the court records reveal.

Lawyers of Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate of Columbia University who was arrested and detained in an immigration facility for more than three months had filed Freedom of Information Act requests, that raised an enquiry about Canary Mission's role in detaining him. The seeked information to "document and expose the reported collaboration between federal officials and private, anti-Palestinian organisations who have identified, doxxed, and reported him and others for purposes of securing the deportation of student activists advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights."

According to the New York Times, Nadia Abu El-Haj, an anthropology professor at Barnard College and Columbia, who said her own profile had been listed on the Canary Mission website, but since she was a US citizen, she was comfortable speaking in defence of the demonstrations. 

She also noted that during the Trump administration's crackdown in March, many students began to retreat from public life after their personal information and photos were listed on the website.