The massive scale of the Catch and Revoke AI
They are running active AI powered mass surveillance on millions of visa holders. Tools like Babel X constantly scrape social media news reports and public data to flag derogatory activity.
As of mid 2025 DHS had used this intelligence to terminate the legal status of over 4700 international students in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). Many learned via sudden text messages or emails ordering them to self deport. Algorithms flag everything from attending protests to being tagged in photos at pro Palestinian rallies.
The tech powering the machine: Babel X plus Palantir programs
This is the actual engine. Not generic AI but specific commercial surveillance platforms contracted by DHS ICE and CBP.
Babel X (Babel Street): An AI enabled OSINT platform that scrapes over 200 languages across social media the deep and dark web and commercial databases. It performs sentiment analysis image recognition (for example spotting protest signs or flags) network mapping (who you are tagged with) and persistent search alerts that ping agents whenever new content appears. It also powers geolocation tracking via purchased mobile ad data. Used by CBP and ICE since at least 2019 and directly tied to Catch and Revoke vetting. Amnesty International explicitly called it out for targeting pro Palestine students and migrants.
Full Amnesty International report (August 2025): https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/08/usa-global-tech-made-by-palantir-and-babel-street-pose-surveillance-threats-to-pro-palestine-student-protestors-migrants/
PDF full findings: https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AMR5102112025ENGLISH.pdf
Babel Street official platform page: https://www.babelstreet.com/platform
Palantir’s ImmigrationOS ELITE and Gotham Foundry platforms: Palantir has been ICEs go to data integrator for over a decade. In April 2025 ICE awarded Palantir a 30 million dollar contract for ImmigrationOS. This near real time visibility system fuses SEVIS student records social media feeds (often from Babel X) location data drivers licenses phone extractions and data broker info into searchable graphs. It prioritizes targets for removal tracks self deportations and builds enforcement dossiers. The newer ELITE tool uses generative AI to create neighborhood maps of potential targets with address confidence scores. In February 2026 DHS signed expanded agreements with Palantir for wider use across ICE and CBP.
Wired detailed contract coverage (April 2025): https://www.wired.com/story/ice-palantir-immigrationos-contract/
February 2026 expansion: https://www.wired.com/story/dhs-palantir-billion-dollar-deal-2026/
Palantir government contracts tracker: https://www.palantir.com/government/
Wired detailed contract coverage (April 2025): https://www.wired.com/story/ice-palantir-immigrationos-contract/
February 2026 expansion: https://www.wired.com/story/dhs-palantir-billion-dollar-deal-2026/
Palantir government contracts tracker: https://www.palantir.com/government/
These systems remove any human bottleneck. Babel X flags speech. Palantir fuses it with SEVIS and broker data. Automated alerts then trigger revocation and ICE action.
The weaponization against green card holders
These are lawful permanent residents who are supposed to have full constitutional protections. The systems are now being used to target green card holders for political speech. Something the Constitution explicitly protects.
ACLU overview of green card holder rights: https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights
Brennan Center report on retaliation against permanent residents: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/retaliation-against-permanent-residents
Mahmoud Khalil
Mahmoud Khalil is a Columbia University graduate student and green card holder who helped negotiate during the Gaza solidarity encampment. In March 2025 ICE agents abducted him from his New York apartment building without a warrant. When his wife told them he had a green card the agents literally said bring him anyway. They used a rarely invoked 1952 law claiming his presence had adverse foreign policy consequences.
He was flown 1400 miles away to the LaSalle detention center in Louisiana where he slept on the floor without a blanket. He spent over 100 days in detention missing the birth of his son before Judge Michael E Farbiarz ruled the detention was unconstitutional retaliation for his political speech. The government is still appealing and trying to deport him in early 2026.
cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com
Columbia Spectator full timeline: https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2025/03/12/mahmoud-khalil-arrest-timeline/
NPR detailed report: https://www.npr.org/2025/03/10/immigration-arrest-columbia-student-khalil
Al Jazeera analysis: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/5/mahmoud-khalil-case-explained
Wikipedia full case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_Mahmoud_Khalil
Columbia Gaza encampment (context of his activism):
cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com
LaSalle ICE Detention Center (where he was held):
Mohsen Mahdawi
Mohsen Mahdawi is another Palestinian green card holder and Columbia student. In April 2025 he walked into a USCIS immigration office in Vermont for what was supposed to be the final step of his citizenship interview.
Instead plainclothes armed officers arrested him. His lawyers at the ACLU called it a retaliatory kidnapping for his prior campus advocacy. An immigration judge terminated his removal proceedings in February 2026 because the government could not even authenticate the memo they used to arrest him.
ACLU statement: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/mohsen-mahdawi-removal-terminated
NYT coverage: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/nyregion/mohsen-mahdawi-arrest-vermont.html
Reveal podcast episode: https://revealnews.org/podcast/mohsen-mahdawi-case/
Rumeysa Ozturk
Rumeysa Ozturk
A graduate student at Tufts University was arrested near her off campus apartment by federal agents after participating in demonstrations. Plainclothes officers surrounded her on the street in Somerville Massachusetts in March 2025. Her student visa was revoked and she was sent to a detention center. Her removal proceedings were terminated by an immigration judge in February 2026.
CNN full report: https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/us/rumeysa-ozturk-arrest
ACLU press release: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/judge-terminates-removal-rumeysa-ozturk
Wikipedia timeline: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_Rumeysa_Ozturk
Minor infractions weaponized
The AI surveillance is also stripping visas over incredibly minor infractions. In Wisconsin a student was flagged by the system and faced deportation over a single speeding ticket from 2024. Students at UPenn Temple University and the University of California system have all reported having their visas suddenly cancelled without warning.
Guardian investigation: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/07/student-visa-revocations-minor-offenses
The modern authoritarian cats eye
This is exactly how the authoritarian cats eye functions in the modern era. Historical secret police like the Stasi had to rely on neighbors spying on each other. Now the government just uses artificial intelligence to index everyones digital life simultaneously.
Expanded actionable steps you can take right now
Here is a clean, engaging format for your Substack post, CSP. It uses strong formatting, clear headers, and fills in the device settings examples you requested:
Throwing Sand in the Machine: Your Data Protection Toolkit
The government is exploiting the data broker loophole. Here is how to fight back and cut off their fuel supply.
If you want to actually fight back against this machine, you have to hit it where it gets its fuel: our data. Right now, the government is exploiting the “data broker loophole.” Because they cannot legally force companies to hand over your location without a warrant, they simply bypass the rules and buy your information from private brokers instead.
Here is the expanded toolkit to protect yourself and throw sand in the gears of this system.
🛑 Aggressively Starve the Data Brokers
Your first line of defense is cutting off the data supply at its source.
Revoke all non-essential app permissions right now. * Shut off Location and Bluetooth access for every single app that does not strictly need it to function. If a calculator or a recipe app wants your location, turn it off.
🛡️ Automate Your Data Deletion
Instead of playing whack-a-mole, you can use automated services that force data brokers to delete your profiles from their databases.
Kanary ### 📚 DIY Privacy Walkthroughs
If you prefer to scrub your digital footprint manually, these guides will walk you through the process step-by-step:
EFF Guide: How to Clear Your Digital Footprint
VPNS Are Not A Magic Bullet
📱 Essential Smartphone Privacy Settings
Take five minutes today to lock down your phone using these built-in settings.
For iPhone (iOS) Users:
Kill Location Tracking: Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services. Scroll through your apps and change any unnecessary ones to “Never.”
Stop Cross-App Tracking: Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking and toggle off “Allow Apps to Request to Track.”
Restrict Bluetooth: Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Bluetooth and revoke access for any app that doesn’t pair with a physical device you own.
For Android Users:
Kill Location Tracking: Go to Settings > Location > App location permissions. Restrict apps to “Don’t allow” or, at the very least, “Ask every time.”
Audit Permissions: Go to Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Permission manager. Systematically review what apps have access to your Camera, Microphone, and Contacts.
Delete Your Ad ID: Go to Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Ads (or Settings > Google > Ads) and select “Delete advertising ID” to prevent brokers from building a centralized profile on your device.
*** Feel free to adjust the tone or add any personal commentary before you hit publish!
Pressure the corporate tech enablers
Financial divestment campaigns against Thomson Reuters LexisNexis Palantir and Babel Street.
Divestment petition example:
https://www.change.org/p/divest-from-palantir
Push the federal and local legislative bans
The Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act.
Bill status tracker: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/273
Flock Safety local campaign guide: search your city council records for Flock Safety contracts.Bill graphics and hearing examples:
Build impenetrable community defense Migrate to end to end encryption. Use Signal Wire Brave Tor Mullvad GrapheneOS CalyxOS. File GDPR and CCPA deletion requests using EFF templates. Join ACLU EFF or campus immigrant rights groups. Host know your rights workshops in encrypted groups.
The 2018 Supreme Court ruling in Carpenter v. United States was supposed to be a watershed moment for digital privacy. The Court held that because cell phone location data provides an “intimate window into a person’s life,” the government generally needs a warrant to seize it from your service provider.
However, federal agencies like ICE and DHS have spent the last few years perfecting an “end-run” around this ruling.
The Data Broker Loophole
Instead of serving a warrant to a phone company (which they can’t do without probable cause), agencies simply open a checkbook. They buy massive datasets from commercial brokers like Babel Street, Venntel, and LexisNexis.
The Mechanism: Thousands of “free” apps—from weather trackers to simple games—contain small pieces of code (SDKs) that vacuum up your Mobile Advertising ID (MAID) and precise GPS coordinates.
The Collection: This data is bundled by brokers and sold to the government. Because you “consented” to the app’s terms of service, the government argues this is a voluntary commercial transaction, not a “search” under the Fourth Amendment.
The Integration: Tools like Palantir and Babel X ingest this data, allowing agents to “geofence” entire neighborhoods or track a single device’s movements over months.
This creates a reality where the government has more surveillance power through a credit card than they ever had with a badge. While the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act was introduced to close this gap, as of early 2026, the loophole remains a primary tool for warrantless mass surveillance.
Actions to Protect Your Location Data
Disable Ad Tracking: On iOS, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking and turn off “Allow Apps to Request to Track.” On Android, go to Settings > Privacy > Ads and select “Delete advertising ID.”
Audit Location Permissions: Strictly limit location access to “Only While Using the App” and disable “Precise Location” for any app that doesn’t strictly need it (like weather or calculators).
Use a Privacy Firewall: Apps like Lockdown (iOS) or NextDNS can block the background connections these apps use to “phone home” to data brokers.
EFF Town Hall: ICE, CBP, and Digital Rights
This online town hall features digital rights experts discussing how the government co-opts the advertising industry to bypass constitutional protections and what communities can do to fight back.
