Court Records Show DHS Secretly Used Crime Unit to Detain Pro-Palestinian Campus Protesters

Newly released court records reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directed a specialized crime unit to target and detain pro-Palestinian student activists, including graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, despite the absence of criminal charges.

Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, was arrested in March outside her home by masked agents after co-writing a student newspaper op-ed criticizing the university's financial ties to Israel.

At a federal trial in Boston concluded on Thursday, testimony showed that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) — an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement typically focused on crimes such as drug smuggling and human trafficking — was ordered to research and pursue student protesters including Ozturk. Judge William Young ruled the effort unconstitutional, while the White House said it will appeal, as The Washington Post reports.

HSI created a "tiger team" of about ten analysts to compile more than 100 reports on protesters. Peter Hatch, who leads HSI's intelligence unit, testified that this was the first time his team had been tasked with preparing reports on campus activists. He said the group relied heavily on profiles from Canary Mission, an anonymous website that lists individuals accused of anti-Israel activity.

Court documents showed that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller spoke more than a dozen times with State Department and DHS officials in March about student visa revocations. HSI then referred cases to the State Department, which revoked visas under little-used authorities before HSI carried out arrests.

An internal State Department memo later acknowledged there was no evidence Ozturk had engaged in antisemitic activity or expressed support for terrorism. She spent six weeks in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana before being released on bail.

Patrick Cunningham, an HSI supervisor in Boston, testified that the instruction to arrest Ozturk was unusual and that he had never before overseen an arrest based solely on visa revocation. Retired HSI official Eric Balliet said he had "taken violent drug traffickers into custody with less overt intimidation and haste."

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) described the detentions as a warning sign. "Locking them up for speech was an early warning sign," he said. The White House countered that "violent riots and student harassment are not protected speech." At least nine students have been targeted under the program, while the government continues efforts to deport Ozturk.