Thursday, July 10, 2025

Ansarollah Website - Follow-ups - Muharram 15, 1447 AH

A senior US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official has admitted that his office used secret pro-Israel websites to help target international student activists who support the Palestinian cause, to investigate them, and consider their possible deportation.

This official is Peter Hatch, Assistant Director of the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (DHSI) within Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He made this admission during a court hearing in a Massachusetts federal court yesterday, Wednesday, in a case against the US administration over its crackdown on international students.

According to the New York Times, this admission marks the first time an official in the Trump administration has acknowledged receiving directives from secret groups behind pro-Israel websites, including Canary Mission, which defame individuals involved in pro-Palestinian activism.

Hatch's testimony in court followed a subpoena from attorneys for the academic associations that filed the lawsuit against the US administration to support their argument that the detention of prominent critics of Israel "was part of an official policy to suppress political speech that was inconsistent with the Trump agenda."

In further detail, Hatch explained that his office was asked to expedite its research and prepare reports that the State Department could use to determine whether to pursue deportations, during a meeting held last March with senior Department of Homeland Security officials.

Hatch added that he had formed a specialized task force that same month to respond to these "surprise" orders, which required expediting the analysis of data related to the thousands of individuals whose names and identities were published by Canary Mission.