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When I initially came in the United States four years ago to begin my PhD at Cornell University, I thought 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 certain immunity akin to that enjoyed by diplomats—a freedom that had enabled me to work as a journalist safely 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 five minutes, I was later banned from campus, a punishment that felt like a form of house arrest since my home was on the university’s upstate New York campus. While I could continue living there, I was prohibited from accessing any university premises.

In January, as Donald Trump assumed office and issued 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 Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Three months later, I self-deported to Canada, then traveled to Switzerland. I was compelled to flee after a acquaintance, who had been with me in Ithaca, was apprehended at a Florida airport and questioned about my location. I did not return to the UK because accounts indicated that pro-Palestine journalists had been detained there under anti-terrorism laws, which filled me with apprehension.

Surveillance and Visa Termination

I expected my arrival in Switzerland would mark the end of my difficult experience. But two weeks later, two alarming emails reached 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, stating that it had complied with a legal request and handed over my data to the Department of Homeland Security. These emails arrived just an hour and a half apart.

The quickfire emails confirmed my hunch that I had been under observation 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 processes and the lack of legal recourse to challenge 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 most powerful government want with my Google data? Why did the US authorities target me? Had they built a narrative of suspicion 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 Monitoring and Risk-Assessment Tools

I may never receive complete answers, but an investigation by the human rights organization sheds fresh insight on the concerning ways the US government has used shadowy AI tech to mass-monitor, observe, and evaluate non-US citizen students and immigrants.

The report states that Babel X, a program made by Virginia-based Babel Street, reportedly searches social media for “terrorism”-related content and tries to predict the potential intent behind posts. The software uses “persistent search” to constantly monitor new information once an search request 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. The organization notes that probabilistic technologies have a high rate of inaccuracy, “can often be biased and biased, and could lead to incorrectly labeling pro-Palestine content as antisemitic.”

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

Predictive 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 tried for any crime, or for exhibiting 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 constitutional free speech rights to oppose the killing of innocent people. It is the US government that has acted illegally and immorally.

The Amnesty report emphasizes the ways that technology companies and powerful states are colluding in the surveillance, control, and expulsion of minorities 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 corpses and rubble, leaving Palestinians with nowhere to go and nothing to eat. 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.

Personal Consequences 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 nagging doubts about whether I can complete my degree before my funding is cut. I have been forced to navigate obstacles 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 immune to 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 uncertain. And because I am also Muslim and write about these identities, it does not make things easier. It is no surprise that in a country with a legacy of racial slavery and post-9/11 Islamophobia, I would get flagged.

With this AI tools in the hands of an administration that has little regard for legal protections, we should all be cautious. What is piloted on minorities soon spreads into the mainstream.