Takeaways about groups working to identify and report foreign student protesters

When President Donald Trump signed an order calling for the deportation of foreign students who participated in “pro-jihadist” protests of the war in Gaza, some supporters of the crackdown were already working to identify targets for expulsion.

Here are some key takeaways about the efforts by pro-Israel private groups to expose protesters using facial recognition and other means, and to report them to federal authorities.

A right-wing Jewish group said it used facial-recognition software to identify campus protesters and included them on a list submitted to administration officials earlier this year, seeking deportation.

A New York computer engineer who has built a facial-recognition tool designed to identify masked protesters said he has talked with other pro-Israel groups about licensing the software for their own efforts.

The use of facial-recognition technology by private groups enters territory previously reserved largely for law enforcement, said attorney Sejal Zota, who represents a group of California activists in a lawsuit against facial-recognition company ClearviewAI.

“We’re focused on government use of facial recognition because that’s who we think of as traditionally tracking and monitoring dissent,” Zota said. But “there are now all of these groups who are sort of complicit in that effort.”

Some private groups have urged their followers to report protesters to immigration authorities, heightening the potential consequences.

“Please tell everyone you know who is at a university to file complaints about foreign students and faculty who support Hamas,” Elizabeth Rand, president of a group called Mothers Against Campus Antisemitism, said in a Jan. 21 post to more than 60,000 followers on Facebook that included a link to an ICE tip line. She did not respond to messages seeking comment.

It’s unclear whether names from outside groups have reached top government officials, who have said that more arrests of international students are coming. But concern about the pursuit of activists has risen since the March 8 arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student of Palestinian descent who helped lead demonstrations against Israel’s conduct of the war.

“Now they’re using tools of the state to actually go after people,” said a Columbia graduate student from South Asia who has been active in protests and spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about losing her visa.

Some supporters of deportation say they’re focused on students whose activities go beyond protest, pointing to those who incite violence or occupy campus buildings illegally.

“If you’re here, right, on a student visa causing civil unrest ... assaulting people on the streets, chanting for people’s death, why the heck did you come to this country?” said Eliyahu Hawila, the software engineer whose company built the tool designed to identify masked protesters.

But an Arab-American advocate said he worries that groups bent on exposing pro-Palestinian activists will make mistakes and single out students who did nothing wrong, potentially costing them the right to stay in the U.S.

The practice of unearthing and spreading personal information has become commonplace in the uproar over Gaza, used to harass both activists in the U.S. and Israeli soldiers who recorded video of themselves on the battlefield.

But the long-term consequences of such actions, known as doxing, were limited. The use of facial-recognition technology by private groups and calls to turn people in to immigration authorities significantly raises the stakes.

“It’s a very concerning practice. We don’t know who these individuals are or what they’re doing with this information,” said Abed Ayoud, national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. “Essentially the administration is outsourcing surveillance.”

FILE - Demonstrators walk in an encampment on the UCLA campus after clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Eliyahu Hawila, a software engineer who wrote a facial-recognition program to identify masked protesters, is seen in New York on Friday, March 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

Eliyahu Hawila, a software engineer, tinkers with the coding of a facial-recognition program he wrote to identify masked protesters in New York on Friday, March 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Geller)

FILE - Police push Pro-Palestinian protesters away from a bus carrying arrested protesters at UC San Diego, May 6, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)

FILE - Pro-Palestinian demonstrators line up across from police on University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Va., May 4, 2024. (Cal Cary/The Daily Progress via AP, File)

FILE - Protesters rally in support of detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, March 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File)

BEIRUT (AP) — The Israeli military struck a building in Beirut's southern suburbs early Tuesday, killing at least three people, in an attack it said said it targeted a member of the Hezbollah militant group.

The airstrike came without warning days after Israel launched an attack on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday for the first time since a ceasefire ended fighting between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group in November. The Israeli military had warned residents in the crowded suburbs before the attack after two projectiles were launched from southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah denied firing.

At least seven other people were wounded in the airstrike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The Israeli military said in a statement the latest strike targeted a Hezbollah member who had been helping the Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip in attacks against Israel. It said the airstrike was “under the direction of the Shin Bet,” Israel’s domestic intelligence agency.

Hezbollah did not comment on the strike. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Photos and videos widely shared on local and social media showed the top three floors of an apartment building damaged following the strike. Piles of debris covered cars below the building.

Jets were heard in parts of the Lebanese capital before the strike near the Hay Madi neighborhood. During Israel's last war with Hezbollah, Israeli drones and jets regularly pounded the southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has wide influence and support. Israel sees the area as a militant stronghold and accuses the group of storing weapons there.

“We were at home. It was Eid al-Fitr,” said Hussein Nour El-Din, a resident in the neighborhood, referring to the Islamic holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. “We didn’t know where it happened, but once the smoke cleared we saw it was the building facing us.”

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, Sheikh Naim Kassem, warned Saturday that if Israel’s attacks on Lebanon continued and if Lebanon's government does not act to stop them, the group would eventually resort to other alternatives.

Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January, while Hezbollah had to end its armed presence south of the Litani River along the border with Israel.

Israel has launched daily strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect, saying it targets Hezbollah officials and infrastructure. The Lebanese military has gradually deployed in the country’s southern region, and Beirut has urged the international community to pressure Israel to stop attacks and withdraw its forces still present on five hilltops in Lebanese territory.

Lebanese army soldiers secure the area of an Israeli targeted strike on an apartment building in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A man inspects debris that fell onto a car at the site where an apartment building was struck by an Israeli targeted attack in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Residents inspect debris that fell onto cars parked at the site where an apartment building was struck by an Israeli targeted attack in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Residents leave the area where an apartment building was struck by an Israeli targeted attack in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Residents inspect debris that fell onto cars parked at the site where an apartment building was struck by an Israeli targeted attack in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A man walks through debris at the site where an apartment building was struck by an Israeli targeted attack in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A damaged apartment building is seen after being struck earlier by an Israeli targeted attack in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A damaged apartment is seen after being hit by an Israeli targeted strike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Debris sits on top of nearby vehicles after an Israeli targeted strike hit an apartment building in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Civil defence and Lebanese army soldiers work at the site of an Israeli targeted strike on an apartment building in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Debris sits on top of nearby vehicles after an Israeli targeted strike hit an apartment building in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. The IDF confirmed it carried out the strike, targeting a Hezbollah operative, making it the second such attack since the November ceasefire. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A damaged apartment is seen after being hit by an Israeli targeted strike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. The IDF reported that it conducted a strike on a southern Beirut suburb, aiming at a Hezbollah operative, marking the second such attack since the November ceasefire(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A damaged apartment is seen after being hit by an Israeli targeted strike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. The IDF reported that it conducted a strike on a southern Beirut suburb, aiming at a Hezbollah operative, marking the second such attack since the November ceasefire.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)