Inside The Deportation Files: How A Secretive Website Became Trump’s Weapon Against Pro-Palestinian Students | World News
Washington: It began with a name. Then a photo. A quote taken out of context. Before they knew it, dozens of young people, many of them students, found themselves flagged, surveilled and pulled into a silent war most Americans had never heard of.
Inside a Washington courtroom, the mask slipped. A Homeland Security officer revealed what activists had long whispered. That the U.S. government was using Canary Mission, a controversial pro-Israel website, to identify and deport student protesters who dared speak out for Palestine.
Peter Hatch, an agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), stood before a federal judge and admitted that ICE had created a special “tiger team”. Its job? To comb through the roughly 5,000 dossiers Canary Mission had compiled on critics of Israel. Hatch said many leads came to them verbally. But yes, some began with the Canary list.
“You mean someone said, ‘Here is a list that the Canary Mission has put together?’” the judge asked.
“Yes,” Hatch replied.
For activists and civil liberties advocates, that one word felt like an earthquake. It confirmed what had long been suspected that the Trump administration was working hand in glove with a website many describe as a hate group. One that publishes names, photos, affiliations and even social media posts of individuals it deems “anti-Israel”.
Those targeted often find the profile linked to their name on search engines. For many, it becomes the top result. For some, it becomes the reason they lose job offers, receive threats or face deportation.
Heba Gowayed, a sociology professor at the City University of New York, did not mince words. “Canary Mission is a doxxing site. Its only purpose is to target and harass people, mostly students, who dare to speak up for Palestinian rights. That the U.S. government is using a website like this is absurd. It is fascist,” she told Al Jazeera.
The crackdown had already begun. After returning to office, Trump wasted no time. Executive orders were signed in January laying the groundwork. One memo instructed federal officials to monitor international students and staff for “anti-Semitic activity”.
In March, Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil became the first public case. A U.S. permanent resident married to a citizen, he was suddenly declared a national security concern. The State Department ordered him deported.
The justification? His political views, specifically his opposition to Israeli policies.
He was not the only one. Dozens more were quietly arrested. Some were given a choice – leave on your own or stay and face indefinite detention. Some, like Khalil, are fighting in court.
One student, Rumeysa Ozturk, had no arrest record. No violent protests. No links to extremist groups. Her “crime”? Co-authoring an op-ed in her university paper supporting a student-led divestment resolution. That alone landed her on Canary Mission’s radar and later in ICE custody.
Behind this purge lies an older playbook. A document circulated before the 2024 elections, titled ‘Project Esther’, laid it out in detail. Drafted by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, it called for identifying student visa holders and professors critical of Israel, with Canary Mission cited repeatedly. The authors believed those activists represented a threat to America’s alliance with Israel.
Andrew Ross, a professor at NYU, while talking to Al Jazeera, called the campaign a “witch hunt”.
“I am on Canary Mission. So are many of my colleagues. What they do is cherry-pick anything they can twist and make it sound like anti-Semitism. The site exists to ruin lives,” he said.
He said the profiles often cite things as basic as sharing Amnesty International reports. “They want to stigmatise anyone who supports Palestinian rights.”
The reach of Canary Mission extends beyond U.S. borders. In 2018, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli border officers used the site to bar entry to certain activists. That same year, The Forward traced the group’s funding to an Israeli nonprofit called Megamot Shalom.
American Jewish charities also reportedly funnelled money toward it. But no one knows who runs the site. Its authors are anonymous. Its servers are private. Its methods are opaque.
“This is not just some blog. It is designed for maximum harm. And when governments start using it? That is dangerous,” Ross said.
Canary Mission claims it does not fabricate information. But critics say its design is the point. The search engine optimisation. The guilt-by-association. The sinister framing of ordinary dissent as radicalism.
And now, the U.S. government is quietly turning to even more extreme corners. At the same court hearing where Hatch admitted to using Canary Mission, he hinted at another site. When asked if it might be Betar, a militant right-wing group linked to Kahanist violence, Hatch said, “That sounds right.”
For rights groups, it is a terrifying escalation.
“This is not immigration enforcement. It is ideological cleansing,” said Palestine Legal in a statement.
Even J Street, a moderate pro-Israel lobby, condemned the move. “Canary Mission is feeding the Trump agenda – weaponising antisemitism to deport student activists. This is about silencing dissent.”
The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment. So did the State Department, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said publicly, “If you come to stir up trouble, we will deny your visa. If you already have one, we will revoke it.”
For now, the blacklists continue to grow. The court battles are ongoing. And a generation of students finds itself caught between a silent database and the full power of the U.S. government.
They protested for Palestine. Now they are fighting for the right to stay in the country they once called home.
