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Upon I initially arrived in the US four years ago to begin my doctorate at Cornell University, I believed I would be the least likely person to be targeted by immigration authorities. From my perspective, holding a British passport seemed to grant a certain immunity akin 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-Palestine protest on campus in September last year. We had brought a job fair to a standstill because it included booths from corporations that supplied Israel with armaments used in its campaign in Gaza. Even though I was there for just five minutes, I was subsequently banned from campus, 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 forbidden from entering any campus facilities.

In January, as Donald Trump assumed office and issued a set of executive orders aimed at non-citizen student protesters, I abandoned 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 prompted 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 reports indicated that pro-Palestine journalists had been arrested there under anti-terrorism laws, which made me fearful.

Surveillance and Visa 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, stating that it had “received and responded to legal process” and handed over my data to the DHS. These emails arrived just an hour and a half apart.

The rapid emails confirmed my hunch that I had been under surveillance and that if I attempted to return to the US, I would likely be detained by ICE, similar to other student protesters. But the secrecy surrounding these procedures and the lack of due process to contest 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 target me? Had they built a case of doubt based on my years working as a journalist covering the US-led “war on terror”? Was I singled out because I was Black and Muslim?

AI Surveillance and Predictive Tools

I may never receive full answers, but an report by Amnesty International sheds new light on the alarming ways the US government has used secretive AI tech to mass-monitor, observe, and evaluate non-US citizen students and immigrants.

The report states that Babel X, software made by Virginia-based Babel Street, reportedly 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 says that predictive technologies have a wide margin of error, “can often be biased and prejudiced, and could lead to falsely framing pro-Palestine content as antisemitic.”

Then there is Palantir’s ImmigrationOS, which generates an electronic case file to consolidate all information related to an immigrant case, allowing authorities to link multiple investigations and establish relationships between cases. Using ImmigrationOS, ICE can also track 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 pre-crime space that has grown significantly since the launch of the US-led “war on terror”—catch now, ask questions later. To this day, I have never been accused or prosecuted for any crime, or for exhibiting antisemitic behavior. As made clear 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 protest the killing of innocent people. It is the US government that has acted unlawfully and immorally.

The Amnesty report emphasizes the ways that big tech 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 turned the territory into a wasteland of the dead and rubble, leaving Palestinians with nowhere to go and nothing to eat. The investigation further shows that the US is mobilizing 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 Consequences and Reflection

While I am far from regretting my actions, I now live in a month-to-month limbo of unstable living arrangements and nagging doubts about whether I can complete my degree before my funding is terminated. 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 immune to these injustices. 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 write about these aspects of myself, 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 targeted.

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