American immigration agents who wear masks arrested Georgetown Academic University outside their home in Virginia. For weeks they held two German tourists when they tried to legally enter the ground across the southern border. They knocked on the door at Columbia University Apartments and were looking for Pro-Palestinian protesting.
Trump’s administration opened a new phase in its immigration agenda, which exceeds the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.
American border officials use more aggressive tactics that the administration calls “improved screening” in the ports of entry into the United States, which has caused US allies such as Germany to update its travel councils. The administration focuses on legal immigrants who have expressed the view that the government believes that it is threatening national security and undermining foreign policy.
The tactics have accelerated foreign tourists and sent the cold through communities in the United States who claim to be focused on speech – not for violating any laws.
“Whether it is a speech and criticism, green cards, they really will move it to a completely new level,” said Gil Kerlikowske, a former customs and border protection commissioner, and a former chief of four cities. Kerlikowske remembered the anti-immigration agenda in the first term of office of Mr. Trump and said “It’s again déjà vu on steroids.”
Administration says arrest and detainees concern the protection of Americans.
“Trump’s administration promotes immigration laws – something that the previous administration could not do,” said the spokesperson of the Ministry of Internal Security Tricia McLaughlin when she asked for a recent arrest. “Those who violate these laws will be processed, detained and removed as needed.”
Mr. Trump’s hard line about immigration has been the highlight of his political identity for years.
The first day back in the office signed an executive order to seize border officers by ordering the administration “to identify all sources that can be used to ensure that all extraterrestrials seeking admission to the United States or who are already in the United States, verified and proven to the maximum possible”.
Customs agents have a wide width to search for mobile phones or passenger computers that are moving to the United States. However, according to the protection of customs and borders, such search was usually rare. In 2024, their electronic devices had less than 0.01 percent of the arrival of international passengers, the agency said.
Internal security agents also have access to a large database called National Center Target To determine the risks between the United States. With the help of other nations sharing information about the population of passengers to the United States, the database allows databases to mark visitors when they enter the ports of the nation.
It is not clear how much this tactic was used to picking up people in a number of recent cases where visitors trying to enter the United States reported that they were a turn or detain. However, two internal security officials who asked for anonymity discussed in detail the matter, acknowledged that officers acted more aggressively after Mr. Trump’s executive order.
Two German tourists They stated that they were stopped separately at the border crossings in San Diego and Tijuana and sent to the crowded detention center, where they said that he was denied a translator and was included in a lonely imprisonment. AND Canadian She said she was detained and put “in the chains” when the officers marked her visa paperwork.
Internal security agencies did not answer questions about any case.
This month, and A French scientist was prevented from entering the ground. The French Minister of University Education said that the Border Patrol Agents found reports in which he expressed his “personal opinion” to colleagues and friends about scientific politicians Mr. Trump.
Mrs. McLaughlin denied it and said that the scientist had confidential information about her electronic facility from the National Laboratory of Los Alamos, which he took without permission and tried to hide.
The scientist worked for the French publicly funded National Center for Scientific Research. The representatives of the center said they did not wish to talk to the media, but they did not answer immediately accusation of the Ministry of Internal Security against it.
In another case, the ministry stopped and detained Dr. Russian-AlawiehA specialist in kidney transplantation and a professor at Brown University, who after visiting relatives in Lebanon tried to return to the United States. Administration deported Dr. Alawieh, although she had a valid visa and a court order blocking her. The Federal authorities said in court that they found “sympathetic photos and videos of prominent characters of Hezbollah” on their phone and that she attended the funeral of Hezbollah in February.
Regarding the control of people who already live in the United States, investigators for immigration and enforcement of customs schools that usually focus on long -term questions Search for videos, online posts and clippings from newspapers protests against the war of Israel Hamas. Then they set up reports of their findings for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It seems that the government also obtains information from private groups such as the Middle East forum, a conservative Think tank. The Group stated in its statement that it had more than 15 active investigations of “national security questions” and would share the results of “individuals and organizations included in terror with relevant government agencies”.
The forum spokesman refused to answer questions about his communication with Trump’s administration. However, the Group’s statement stated that it has “a three -Grew history to share the results of our work with the relevant government and law enforcement authorities on all the issues of the US National Security.”
Trump’s administration to deport people living in the United States with green cards or valid visas rarely used the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives the Minister a state sweeping to exclude foreigners who are considered to be a threat to foreign policy interests.
ICE agents arrested by this authority Mahmúd KhalilGraduate of Columbia, who has a Palestinian heritage and has taken over an important role in the pro-Palestinian protest at school and Badar Khan SuriAn Indian citizen who studied and taught in Georgetown.
Mr. Khalil has a green card, which means he is a legal permanent resident. Karoline Leavitt, a print secretary of the White House, accused him of “tiling with terrorists”.
Mrs. McLaughlin was accused by Dr. Suri of “Hamas propaganda and promotion of anti -Semitism on social media” without giving evidence.
According to an official who is familiar with the case of Dr. Suri, the state ministry justified its deportation by arguing that he was dealing with anti -Semitic activity that would undermine diplomatic efforts to make Israel and Hamas agree to the ceasefire. It is in the United States on a visa for academics.
Wife of Dr. Suri, an American citizen of Palestinian origin, is the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, a former advisor to leader Hamas, who was murdered last year in Iran.
According to the court, his lawyers were Dr. Suri surrounded by masked internal security agents outside his home in Virginia on Monday evening, arrested and placed in an unmarked SUV of the judge temporarily blocked his removal from the country.
Lawyers for Mr. Khalil and Dr. Suri claims that the administration punishes them for speaking for Palestinians. Neither of them was charged with crime. They are detained while their lawyers fight their deportations.
Chad Wolf, who served as the reigning Minister of Internal Security at the end of the first term of office of Mr. Trump, prevented the intervention of the administration and claimed that the visa was a discretion advantage provided by the US government.
“They will use every lever to be protected by the US people,” he said.
However, advocates of free speech see other dynamics while playing. Will Creeley, the legal director for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expressions, said he believed that “the clear motivation of Trump’s administration is to cool down”.
“Simply, that someone is in line with the terrorist organization, does not accumulate them from the protection of the first addition,” Creeley said. “Administration has not shown any evidence that Mr. Khalil’s expressive activity falls within a narrow or carefully defined exception from the first addition.”
The group of Mr. Creeley and others gave Amicus briefly to support Mr. Khalil.
Janet Napolitano, which served as Minister of Internal Security during Obama’s administration, said that Mr. Trump’s recent interventions with immigrants with the legal status were “unlike what the first amendment is about”.
“When he is justified”, you are a threat to national security “and he is like one individual, I think,” said Mrs. Napolitano. “Let’s be real.”
