The Intercept, Apr 14, 2025

Of all of the tens of thousands of people who have spoken out against Israel’s war on Gaza, how did the Trump administration come to single out campus activists Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk for deportation?

Turns out, Khalil and Öztürk were both featured prominently on blacklists published online by far-right pro-Israel organizations under headings like “deport alert” and “uncovering foreign nationals.”

One of the groups, Canary Mission, has run a massive doxing operation for years, publishing the names and photos of thousands of pro-Palestine activists — all while concealing its own leadership and even its mailing address.

Another group, Betar, openly encourages targeting of student activists and brags that it has “provided names of hundreds of terror supporters” to the Trump administration.

The idea of the U.S. government teaming up with far-right extremists to deport political enemies is flat-out terrifying.

The Intercept’s journalists are racing to investigate these little-known organizations, pulling back the curtain on their funding and institutional connections. In response, Betar blasted us as “jihadis masquerading as journalists” and inquired about our reporter’s citizenship status.

So today we’re making an urgent appeal to readers: As our nonprofit newsroom comes under attack for investigating these pro-Israel blacklists, will you donate today and ensure our reporting can continue? 

On March 8, the Trump administration arrested Columbia University graduate and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil and shipped him off to an ICE detention center in Louisiana in retaliation for his advocacy against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. 

Then, on March 25, masked ICE agents arrested Tufts University student and visa holder Rümeysa Öztürk and also sent her to a Louisiana jail, again with no charges, apparently in response to an op-ed she co-authored in the Tufts student newspaper. 

These are just two of the hundreds of people who have been targeted for deportation as part of a sweeping, flagrantly illegal Trump administration assault on pro-Palestinian free speech. 

Let’s be 100 percent clear: It is illegal to deport someone for political speech. Yet far too many mainstream media outlets continue to normalize what Donald Trump is doing as merely an “aggressive flexing of power.” 

That’s why it’s so important to continue our investigation into the ties between the Trump administration and these pro-Israel extremists. Will you donate $5 today?

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Thank you,

The Intercept team