From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Anti-Israel Cornell student slated for deportation says he’s leaving the US
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A Cornell University student who participated in pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests and was asked to surrender by US immigration officials says he was leaving the United States, citing fear of detention and threats to his personal safety.
Momodou Taal, a doctoral candidate in Africana Studies and dual citizen of the UK and The Gambia, has participated in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s war in Gaza following an October 2023 Hamas attack. His attorneys said last month that he was asked to turn himself in and that his student visa was being revoked.
US President Donald Trump has pledged to deport foreign protesters accused them of supporting Hamas, being antisemitic and taking part in violent or destructive campus demonstrations.
Last year, Taal was in a group of activists who disrupted a career fair on campus that featured weapons manufacturers and the university thereafter ordered him to study remotely. He previously posted online that “colonized peoples have the right to resist by any means necessary.”
Taal filed a lawsuit in mid-March to block deportations of protesters, a bid that was denied by a judge last week.
“Given what we have seen across the United States, I have lost faith that a favorable ruling from the courts would guarantee my personal safety and ability to express my beliefs,” Taal says on X.
The Times of Israel Community.