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When I first arrived in the United States four years ago to begin my doctorate at Cornell University, I thought I would be the least likely person to be hunted by immigration authorities. From my perspective, holding a British passport seemed to grant a certain immunity 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 participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus in September last year. We had brought a job fair to a standstill because it included booths from corporations that provided Israel with weapons used in its military operations in Gaza. Although I was there for just a brief moment, I was later barred from university grounds, a sanction that felt like a form of confinement since my home was on the university’s upstate New York campus. While I could remain there, I was forbidden from accessing any campus facilities.

In January, as the new administration came into power and enacted a series of executive orders targeting non-citizen student protesters, I abandoned my home and sought refuge at the remote home of a professor, worried about the reach of ICE. Three months later, I self-deported to Canada, then flew to Switzerland. I was compelled to flee after a friend, who had been with me in Ithaca, was detained 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 filled me with apprehension.

Monitoring and Immigration Status Revocation

I expected my arrival in Switzerland would mark the end of my ordeal. But a fortnight later, two distressing emails appeared in my inbox. The first was from Cornell, notifying me that the US government had effectively revoked my student visa status. The second came from Google, indicating that it had “received and responded to legal process” and handed over my data to the DHS. These emails arrived just an hour and a half apart.

The rapid emails confirmed my hunch that I had been under observation and that if I attempted to re-enter the US, I would likely be arrested by ICE, like other student protesters. But the secrecy surrounding these processes and the absence of due process to contest them provoked more questions than they answered.

Was there any communication between Cornell and US government authorities before my visa being canceled? What did the world’s strongest government want with my Google data? Why did the US authorities go after me? Had they built a case of doubt based on my years working as a journalist reporting on the US-led “war on terror”? Was I targeted because I was Black and Muslim?

AI Monitoring and Risk-Assessment Tools

I may never get complete answers, but an investigation by Amnesty International sheds fresh insight on the alarming ways the US government has deployed secretive AI tech to mass-monitor, surveil, and evaluate non-US citizen students and immigrants.

Amnesty says that Babel X, a program made by Virginia-based Babel Street, allegedly scours social media for “terrorism”-related content and tries to predict the potential intent behind posts. The software uses “persistent search” to continuously monitor new information once an initial query has been made. It is possible that my reportage—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 says that probabilistic technologies have a wide margin of error, “can often be discriminatory and prejudiced, and could lead to falsely labeling pro-Palestine content as antisemitic.”

Then there is Palantir’s ImmigrationOS, which generates an digital record to centralize all information related to an immigrant investigation, allowing authorities to link multiple investigations and draw connections between cases. Using ImmigrationOS, ICE can also monitor self-deportations, and it was launched in April, the same month I left. It may clarify why the US took action to bar my re-entry into the country when it did.

Predictive Policing and Absence of Legal Rights

This all exists in the predictive policing space that has grown exponentially 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 displaying antisemitic behavior. As made clear 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 unethically.

The Amnesty report highlights the ways that technology companies and powerful states are colluding in the surveillance, control, and expulsion 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 reduced the territory into a wasteland of the dead and rubble, leaving Palestinians with no refuge and no food. The investigation further shows that the US is using tech to strip asylum seekers and migrants of their basic human rights, subjecting them to arbitrary detention 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 uncertain state of uncertainty of unstable living arrangements and nagging doubts about whether I can complete my degree before my funding is terminated. I have been compelled to jump through hoops to access essential medical treatment. I was perhaps overly optimistic to think that as a British national with a London accent, at an Ivy League university, I was above these injustices. But just before I left the US, Joe, my African American barber, reminded me that: “You’re just Black.” My racial identity made my status in the US conditional. And because I am also Muslim and document these identities, it does not help matters. It is no surprise that in a country with a history 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 legal protections, we should all beware. What is piloted on minorities soon drifts into the mainstream.