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When I initially arrived in the United States four years ago to begin my doctorate at Cornell University, I believed I would be the least likely person to be targeted by federal immigration agents. As far as I could tell, holding a British passport seemed to grant a sort of protection akin to that enjoyed by diplomats—a mobility that had enabled me to work as a journalist unscathed across West Africa’s restive Sahel region for years.

The situation deteriorated after I attended a pro-Palestine protest on campus in September last year. We had halted a campus recruitment event because it included booths from companies that provided Israel with armaments used in its military operations in Gaza. Even though I was there for just a brief moment, I was later banned from campus, a punishment that felt like a type of house arrest since my residence was on the university’s upstate New York campus. While I could remain there, I was forbidden from entering any campus facilities.

In January, as the new administration came into power and issued a series of presidential directives aimed at non-citizen student protesters, I abandoned my home and went into hiding at the secluded home of a professor, worried about the reach of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Three months later, I voluntarily left to Canada, then flew to Switzerland. I was prompted to flee after a acquaintance, who had been with me in Ithaca, was apprehended at a Florida airport and questioned about my whereabouts. I did not return to the UK because reports indicated that pro-Palestine journalists had been detained there under terrorism laws, which made me fearful.

Surveillance and Immigration Status Revocation

I hoped my arrival in Switzerland would signal the conclusion of my difficult experience. But two weeks later, two distressing emails appeared in my inbox. The first was from Cornell, informing me that the US government had effectively revoked my student visa status. The second came from Google, indicating that it had complied with a legal request and handed over my data to the Department of Homeland Security. These emails arrived just 90 minutes apart.

The rapid emails confirmed my suspicion that I had been under surveillance and that if I attempted to return to the US, I would likely be arrested by ICE, similar to other student protesters. But the lack of transparency surrounding these procedures and the lack of due process to challenge them provoked more questions than they answered.

Was there any communication between Cornell and US government agencies prior to my visa being canceled? What did the most powerful government want with my Google data? Why did the US authorities target me? Had they constructed a case of doubt based on my years working as a journalist covering the US-led “war on terror”? Was I targeted because I was Black and Muslim?

AI Surveillance and Predictive Technology

I may never receive full answers, but an report by the human rights organization sheds new light on the concerning ways the US government has used secretive AI tech to mass-monitor, surveil, and assess non-US citizen students and immigrants.

Amnesty says that Babel X, software made by Virginia-based Babel Street, reportedly searches social media for “terrorism”-related content and tries to determine the potential intent behind posts. The software uses “persistent search” to continuously monitor new information once an initial query has been made. It is likely that my journalistic work—on topics ranging from Guantánamo to drone strikes in the Sahel and the role of British secret services in the Libyan civil war—was flagged. Amnesty International notes that probabilistic technologies have a wide margin of error, “can often be biased and biased, and could lead to falsely framing pro-Palestine content as antisemitic.”

Then there is Palantir’s ImmigrationOS, which creates an digital record to consolidate all information related to an immigrant case, allowing authorities to link multiple investigations and establish relationships between cases. Using ImmigrationOS, ICE can also track self-deportations, and it was rolled out in April, the same month I left. It may help explain why the US took action to block my re-entry into the country at that time.

Pre-Crime Enforcement and Lack of Due Process

This all exists in the predictive policing space that has grown significantly since the launch of the US-led “war on terror”—catch now, ask questions later. To this day, I have never been charged or tried for any crime, or for exhibiting antisemitic behavior. As demonstrated by a recent complaint by the University of Chicago Law Clinic, submitted on behalf of me and eight other non-citizen protesters to eight UN special rapporteurs, I’ve merely exercised my First Amendment free speech rights to protest the killing of innocent people. It is the US government that has acted illegally and immorally.

The Amnesty report highlights the ways that technology companies and powerful states are cooperating in the surveillance, management, and deportation of racial others and migrants, as well as political dissidents and journalists. We’re seeing this unfold in Gaza, where Israel’s “algorithmic warfare” has turned the territory into a devastated area of the dead and rubble, leaving Palestinians with nowhere to go and nothing to eat. The investigation further shows that the US is mobilizing tech to deprive asylum seekers and migrants of their basic human rights, consigning them to unjust imprisonment before they have a chance to defend themselves or seek safety.

Individual Impact and Reflection

While I am far from regretting my actions, I now live in a month-to-month state of uncertainty of precarious living arrangements and persistent doubts about whether I can complete my degree before my funding is cut. I have been compelled to navigate obstacles to access life-saving medical treatment. I was perhaps naive to think that as a British national with a London accent, at an Ivy League university, I was above these horrors. But just before I left the US, Joe, my African American barber, told me that: “You’re just Black.” My racial identity made my status in the US uncertain. And because I am also Muslim and write about these identities, it does not help matters. It is no surprise that in a country with a legacy of racial slavery and post-9/11 Islamophobia, I would get targeted.

With this AI tools in the hands of an administration that has minimal respect for constitutional safeguards, we should all be cautious. What is tested on minorities soon spreads into the mainstream.