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When I initially arrived in the United States four years ago to start my PhD at Cornell University, I assumed I would be the least likely person to be targeted by federal immigration agents. From my perspective, holding a British passport seemed to grant a sort of immunity akin to that enjoyed by diplomats—a freedom that had allowed me to work as a journalist unscathed across West Africa’s unstable Sahel region for years.

The situation deteriorated after I participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus in September last year. We had halted a campus recruitment event because it included booths from corporations that supplied Israel with armaments used in its military operations in Gaza. Although I was there for just a brief moment, I was later banned from campus, a sanction that felt like a type of confinement since my residence was on the university’s Ithaca campus. While I could remain there, I was forbidden from accessing any campus facilities.

In January, as Donald Trump came into power and enacted a set of presidential directives aimed at non-citizen student protesters, I left my home and went into hiding at the remote home of a professor, fearing the reach of ICE. Three months later, I voluntarily left to Canada, then flew to Switzerland. I was prompted to flee after a friend, 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 anti-terrorism laws, which made me fearful.

Surveillance and Visa Revocation

I expected my arrival in Switzerland would mark the end of my ordeal. But two weeks later, two alarming emails reached my inbox. The first was from Cornell, notifying me that the US government had effectively terminated my student visa status. The second came from Google, indicating that it had “received and responded to legal process” and provided my data to the Department of Homeland Security. These emails arrived just 90 minutes apart.

The quickfire emails confirmed my suspicion that I had been under observation and that if I attempted to return to the US, I would likely be detained by ICE, like other student protesters. But the secrecy surrounding these procedures and the absence of due process to challenge them provoked more questions than they answered.

Was there any correspondence between Cornell and US government authorities before my visa being canceled? What did the most powerful government want with my Google data? Why did the US authorities target me? Had they built a narrative of doubt based on my years working as a journalist reporting on the US-led “war on terror”? Was I singled out because I was Black and Muslim?

Artificial Intelligence Surveillance and Predictive Technology

I may never get full answers, but an investigation by Amnesty International sheds fresh insight on the alarming ways the US government has used shadowy 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 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 marked. Amnesty International notes that probabilistic technologies have a wide margin of error, “can often be discriminatory and prejudiced, and could lead to falsely framing 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 connect multiple investigations and draw connections 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 when it did.

Pre-Crime Enforcement and Absence of Due Process

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 accused or prosecuted for any crime, or for exhibiting antisemitic behavior. As made clear by a recent complaint by the University of Chicago Law Clinic, filed on behalf of me and eight other non-citizen protesters to eight UN special rapporteurs, I’ve merely used my constitutional free speech rights to oppose 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 minorities and migrants, as well as activists and journalists. We’re seeing this play out in Gaza, where Israel’s “algorithmic warfare” has reduced the territory into a devastated area of corpses and rubble, leaving Palestinians with no refuge and no food. The investigation further shows that the US is using tech to deprive asylum seekers and migrants of their fundamental rights, subjecting them to unjust imprisonment before they have a chance to defend themselves or ask for safety.

Individual Consequences and Reflection

While I am far from regretting my actions, I now live in a uncertain limbo of unstable living arrangements and nagging doubts about whether I can finish my degree before my funding is cut. I have been compelled to jump through hoops to access life-saving 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 horrors. 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 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 history of racial slavery and post-9/11 Islamophobia, I would get flagged.

With this technology 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.