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When I first came in the United States four years ago to start my PhD at Cornell University, I thought I would be the least likely person to be targeted by federal immigration agents. As far as I could tell, holding a British passport seemed to grant a certain immunity similar to that enjoyed by diplomats—a mobility that had enabled me to work as a journalist safely across West Africa’s unstable Sahel region for years.

The situation deteriorated after I attended a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus in September the previous year. We had halted a campus recruitment event because it included booths from corporations that provided Israel with armaments used in its campaign in Gaza. Although I was there for just five minutes, I was subsequently barred from university grounds, a sanction that felt like a type of house arrest since my residence was on the university’s upstate New York campus. While I could continue living there, I was prohibited from entering any campus facilities.

In January, as Donald Trump came into power and enacted a set of executive orders aimed at non-citizen student protesters, I left my home and sought refuge 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 compelled to flee after a friend, who had spent time with me in Ithaca, was apprehended at a Florida airport and interrogated 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 Immigration Status Termination

I hoped my arrival in Switzerland would signal the conclusion of my difficult experience. But a fortnight later, two distressing emails appeared in my inbox. The first was from Cornell, informing me that the US government had effectively revoked my student visa status. The second came from Google, stating 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 rapid emails confirmed my suspicion 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 lack of transparency surrounding these procedures and the lack of legal recourse to challenge them provoked more questions than they answered.

Was there any communication 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 go after me? Had they built a case of doubt based on my years working as a journalist reporting on the US-led “war on terror”? Was I targeted because I was Black and Muslim?

Artificial Intelligence Monitoring and Risk-Assessment Tools

I may never receive full 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 extensively watch, surveil, and assess 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 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 journalistic work—on topics ranging from Guantánamo to drone strikes in the Sahel and the role of British secret services in the Libyan civil war—was flagged. The organization says that predictive technologies have a high rate of inaccuracy, “can often be biased and prejudiced, and could lead to incorrectly framing 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 connect 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 clarify 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 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 used my constitutional free speech rights to protest the slaughter of innocent people. It is the US government that has acted illegally and immorally.

The Amnesty report highlights the ways that technology companies and governments are cooperating in the surveillance, management, and deportation of minorities and migrants, as well as political dissidents and journalists. We’re seeing this unfold in Gaza, where Israel’s “algorithmic warfare” has turned the territory into a devastated area of the dead and rubble, leaving Palestinians with nowhere to go 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 plead their case or seek safety.

Individual Impact and Reflection

While I am far from feeling sorry for my actions, I now live in a uncertain limbo of precarious 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 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 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 targeted.

With this technology in the hands of an administration that has minimal respect for legal protections, we should all be cautious. What is tested on minorities soon spreads into the mainstream.