Sometime in March, exact date unknown, ICE formed a unit to generate reports on over 5,000 student protesters accessed through the Canary Mission List, which accuses pro-Palestine Americans of being extremists.
On July 9th, Senior DHS official Peter Hatch testifies in court, stating that due to increased efforts to rapidly find and deport student protestors, the DHS moved workers from Counterintelligence, Counterterrorism, Cyber Intelligence, and Global Trade intelligence units in early 2025 to create a “Tiger team” unit of analysts.
Hatch explained the main role of the analysts included accessing individual names from multiple sources, collecting facts, and writing reports detailing information that determines an individual’s actions as contrary to the United States, including free speech and phrases such as “free Palestine.”
According to court documents, after the analysts collected data on names accessed from Canary Mission and BETAR list, they sent the data to the National Security Division of Homeland Security Investigations, who compiled the information in a letter to the State Department; the State Department would then make a final decision on whether the person, who was a lawful permanent resident, was to be removed from the country.
Hatch said he was given verbal direction to look at Canary Mission and explained the Tiger Team used the list because:
[the list] made accusations…like…these protesters are involved in violent activities, are condoning or supporting violence, possibly even terrorist organizations.
When asked by the court if he had any understanding of how Canary Mission identifies the people on its website and its accusations, he said no.
Hatch explained that the information analyst found and used from Canary Mission “is not information that we would take as an authoritative source.”
Background on Canary Mission
Canary Mission is an online archive that documents anti-Israel activists. The website mission mentions individuals who engage in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement are subject to archive in the system.
The website has a history of wrongly accusing individuals of engaging in extremist anti-Israel activity. In 2018, student Lara Alqasem was barred entry into Israel based on information listed on the Canary Mission website; at the time, Laura was president of the University of Florida’s chapter of Students for Justice for Palestine. Laura appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court and was granted entry into Israel, yet her arrest and appeal highlighted that Canary Mission’s burden of proof was flawed and that the organization deemed any criticism of Israel conducive to archive.
The use of Canary Mission’s flawed information explained how ICE receives leads on visa students who did not violently protest against Israel; earlier this year in March, Tuft’s doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk was kidnapped by unmasked ICE agents who rushed her into an unmarked vehicle only steps away from her home. The reason? Ozturk had co-written an op-ed in a student newspaper regarding the BDS movement at Tufts University.
