During the third day of a federal bench trial in Boston, Peter J. Hatch, Assistant Director of the Office of Intelligence at DHS, testified that the government compiled reports on over 100 student protesters based on names listed by Canary Mission, a controversial doxxing website that profiles critics of Israel. This effort, initiated in March 2025, led to the formation of a "Tiger Team" within Homeland Security Investigations, pulling analysts from multiple units to process more than 5,000 profiles. Hatch stated that these reports covered employment history, travel records, criminal activity, and alleged support for terrorist groups, drawing primarily from Canary Mission but also using data from other sources. Though Hatch stressed that his office only produces factual intelligence and does not assess guilt, he admitted that phrases like "Free Palestine" or criticism of Israel could be flagged in reports depending on the context.
The case, brought by the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association, challenges what plaintiffs describe as an "ideological deportation policy" by the Trump administration. It centers around whether foreign students were unlawfully targeted for their political beliefs, with testimony from faculty and students asserting that arrests like those of Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk were politically motivated. Judge William G. Young ruled that the government must release redacted versions of the investigative reports to the plaintiffs, a key development as the trial progresses. Faculty such as Harvard professor Bernhard Nickel described how fear of reprisal has chilled political expression on campus, with noncitizen students increasingly self-censoring in response to arrests. Hatch confirmed that this is the first time his office has been tasked with producing intelligence reports on foreign students engaged in campus protests.