In a federal court testimony on July 9, 2025, Peter Hatch, Assistant Director for the Office of Investigations within DHS, revealed that a specialized "Tiger Team" was created by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to investigate over 5,000 individuals named on pro-Israel doxxing websites such as Canary Mission and Betar. These sites profile critics of Israel on U.S. college campuses. Hatch confirmed that this initiative was launched following a March 2025 senior leadership meeting, and analysts from various intelligence units were reassigned to handle the high volume of names. This is the first public acknowledgment from a government official detailing the extent to which the Trump administration has pursued pro-Palestinian student activists under the guise of national security, including the revocation of over 300 student visas, as earlier claimed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Hatch described a three-step process: HSI analysts produced reports on targeted individuals, which were sent to the National Security Division, then summarized and forwarded to the State Department for possible action--including arrests and deportations. Though Hatch insisted that Canary Mission was not considered an authoritative source, he admitted it was the most "inclusive" list used. He also disclosed that referrals came from additional sources such as law enforcement agencies and public tips. Since March, Hatch has reviewed about 20 of the 100-200 reports created under this effort--an unusual task for him given that he had never previously reviewed protester reports. His testimony came during Day 3 of a bench trial brought by the AAUP and MESA, which challenges the government\u2019s alleged ideological deportation strategy targeting international students for protected political speech. Hatch is expected to return to the stand for further questioning.