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When I initially arrived in the United States four years ago to start my doctorate at Cornell University, I believed I would be the last person to be targeted by federal immigration agents. From my perspective, holding a British passport seemed to grant a sort of immunity similar 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 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 campaign 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 residence was on the university’s Ithaca campus. While I could continue living there, I was prohibited from entering any campus facilities.

In January, as Donald Trump assumed office and enacted a set of executive orders aimed at non-citizen student protesters, I left my home and went into hiding at the secluded home of a professor, fearing the reach of ICE. Three months later, I voluntarily left to Canada, then traveled to Switzerland. I was compelled to flee after a acquaintance, who had spent time 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 arrested there under terrorism laws, which made me fearful.

Surveillance and Visa Termination

I hoped my arrival in Switzerland would signal the conclusion of my difficult experience. But a fortnight 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, indicating that it had complied with a legal request and provided my data to the Department of Homeland Security. These emails arrived just an hour and a half apart.

The rapid emails validated my hunch that I had been under surveillance 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 challenge them raised more questions than they answered.

Was there any correspondence between Cornell and US government agencies before my visa being terminated? What did the world’s strongest 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 Surveillance and Predictive Technology

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

The report states 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 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 intelligence agencies in the Libyan civil war—was marked. The organization notes that probabilistic technologies have a high rate of inaccuracy, “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 case, allowing authorities to connect multiple investigations and establish relationships between cases. Using ImmigrationOS, ICE can also monitor self-deportations, and it was launched 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.

Predictive Enforcement and Absence of Legal Rights

This all exists in the pre-crime space that has expanded significantly since the launch of the US-led “war on terror”—detain now, ask questions later. To this day, I have never been accused or tried for any crime, or for displaying antisemitic behavior. As demonstrated 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 exercised 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 big tech and governments are cooperating in the surveillance, management, and deportation of racial others 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 defend themselves or seek safety.

Personal Impact and Reflection

While I am far from regretting my actions, I now live in a uncertain state of uncertainty of precarious living arrangements and persistent 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 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, reminded me that: “You’re just Black.” My Blackness 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 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 minimal respect for constitutional safeguards, we should all beware. What is piloted on minorities soon spreads into the mainstream.