Four experienced Homeland Security agents have given testimony saying that the Trump administration’s orders to arrest pro-Palestinian foreign academics for deportation were very unusual and described as urgent. This suggests a major change in the focus of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), shifting toward immigration enforcement, which is normally handled by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).
These details came out during an ongoing lawsuit in Boston that claims the Trump administration is carrying out an “ideological deportation policy” targeting non-citizens because of their speech. This kind of thing clearly violates the First Amendment. Agents involved in the arrests of recent Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk both said they were surprised by the nature of the requests.
