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When I initially came in the US 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 protection similar 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.

Things began to fall apart after I participated in a pro-Palestine protest on campus in September last year. We had brought a job fair to a standstill because it featured booths from companies that provided Israel with weapons used in its military operations in Gaza. Even though I was there for just a brief moment, I was subsequently banned from campus, a punishment that felt like a form of house arrest since my residence was on the university’s upstate New York campus. While I could remain there, I was forbidden from accessing any university premises.

In January, as the new administration came into power and enacted a set of presidential directives aimed at non-citizen student protesters, I abandoned my home and sought refuge at the secluded home of a professor, worried about 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 friend, who had spent time with me in Ithaca, was detained 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 Revocation

I expected my arrival in Switzerland would signal the conclusion of my difficult experience. But a fortnight later, two distressing emails reached my inbox. The first was from Cornell, informing 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 handed over my data to the DHS. 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 re-enter the US, I would likely be arrested by ICE, like other student protesters. But the secrecy surrounding these procedures and the lack of legal recourse to contest them provoked more questions than they answered.

Was there any correspondence between Cornell and US government agencies before my visa being terminated? What did the most powerful government want with my Google data? Why did the US authorities target me? Had they constructed 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?

AI Surveillance and Predictive Tools

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

Amnesty says that Babel X, a program made by Virginia-based Babel Street, allegedly searches 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 search request 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 intelligence agencies in the Libyan civil war—was marked. The organization says that predictive technologies have a wide margin of error, “can often be biased and prejudiced, and could lead to incorrectly labeling pro-Palestine content as antisemitic.”

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

Pre-Crime Policing and Lack of Due Process

This all exists in the pre-crime space that has expanded 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 prosecuted for any crime, or for displaying antisemitic behavior. As demonstrated by a recent legal submission 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 First Amendment 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 deportation of minorities and migrants, as well as political dissidents and journalists. We’re seeing this play out in Gaza, where Israel’s “algorithmic warfare” has reduced the territory into a wasteland 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 arbitrary detention before they have a chance to plead their case or ask for safety.

Personal Consequences and Reflection

While I am far from feeling sorry for my actions, I now live in a month-to-month state of uncertainty of unstable living arrangements and nagging doubts about whether I can complete my degree before my funding is cut. I have been compelled to navigate obstacles to access essential medical treatment. I was perhaps naive to think that as a British national with a London accent, at an Ivy League university, I was immune to these horrors. But just before I left the US, Joe, my African American barber, told me that: “You’re just Black.” My Blackness made my status in the US conditional. And because I am also Muslim and document these aspects of myself, 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 spreads into the mainstream.