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Upon I initially came in the US four years ago to start my PhD at Cornell University, I thought I would be the least likely person to be targeted by immigration authorities. As far as I could tell, holding a British passport seemed to grant a certain protection similar to that enjoyed by diplomats—a mobility that had allowed me to work as a journalist unscathed across West Africa’s unstable Sahel region for years.

Things began to fall apart after I attended a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus in September last year. We had halted a campus recruitment event because it featured booths from corporations that supplied Israel with weapons used in its campaign in Gaza. Even though I was there for just a brief moment, I was later banned from campus, a punishment that felt like a type of house arrest since my home was on the university’s upstate New York campus. While I could continue living there, I was forbidden from accessing any university premises.

In January, as the new administration assumed office and enacted a series of executive orders targeting non-citizen student protesters, I abandoned my home and went into hiding at the secluded home of a professor, worried about the reach of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Three months later, I voluntarily left 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 anti-terrorism laws, which filled me with apprehension.

Monitoring and Immigration Status Termination

I expected my arrival in Switzerland would signal the conclusion of my difficult experience. But a fortnight later, two alarming emails appeared in 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 Department of Homeland Security. These emails arrived just 90 minutes apart.

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

Was there any correspondence between Cornell and US government authorities prior to my visa being canceled? What did the most powerful government want with my Google data? Why did the US authorities go after me? Had they constructed a case of doubt 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 Technology

I may never get complete answers, but an report by Amnesty International sheds fresh insight on the concerning ways the US government has used secretive AI tech to extensively watch, observe, and evaluate non-US citizen students and immigrants.

Amnesty says that Babel X, software made by Virginia-based Babel Street, allegedly searches social media for “terrorism”-related content and tries to determine 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 flagged. Amnesty International notes that predictive technologies have a wide margin of error, “can often be discriminatory and biased, and could lead to falsely labeling pro-Palestine content as antisemitic.”

Then there is Palantir’s ImmigrationOS, which generates an digital record to consolidate all information related to an immigrant investigation, allowing authorities to connect multiple investigations and establish relationships 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 block my re-entry into the country at that time.

Pre-Crime Enforcement and Absence of Legal Rights

This all exists in the pre-crime space that has grown 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 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 exercised my First Amendment free speech rights to oppose the slaughter of innocent people. It is the US government that has acted unlawfully and immorally.

The Amnesty report highlights the ways that big tech and powerful states 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 turned the territory into a devastated area of the dead 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 basic human rights, subjecting them to unjust imprisonment before they have a chance to plead their case or ask for safety.

Personal Impact and Reflection

While I am far from feeling sorry for my actions, I now live in a uncertain limbo of unstable living arrangements and persistent doubts about whether I can complete my degree before my funding is cut. I have been forced 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 injustices. But just before I left the US, Joe, my African American barber, told 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 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 minimal respect for legal protections, we should all beware. What is tested on minorities soon spreads into the mainstream.