4 hours ago - American Public News

ITHACA, N.Y. — An international Cornell University graduate student and anti-war activist is seeking a federal injunction to block enforcement of two Trump-era executive orders they argue target pro-Palestinian activists and others who express views the government deems “anti Semitic” or “hostile.” The lawsuit comes days after the high-profile arrest and possible deportation of Palestinian activist and former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil on March 9, which President Donald Trump warned would be “the first of many” in a post on his social media platform.Lawyers for Momodou Taal, a British and Ghanaian national, filed the federal lawsuit on March 15. Taal, who is studying at Cornell on an F1 student visa, has played a key role in organizing on-campus pro-Palestinian protests and events.Two other plaintiffs, both U.S. citizens, joined Taal in the suit: Cornell professor Mũkoma Wa Ngũgĩ and Cornell graduate student Sriram Parasurama. The two have also been involved in anti-war activism on campus.A hearing will be held at 2 p.m. on March 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. The suit alleges the three plaintiffs have been “unconstitutionally silenced” as a result of the “chilling effect” the executive orders have had on their speech. It seeks to prevent the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from enforcing two executive orders Trump signed in January.Executive Order 14188 encourages criminal prosecution as punishment for speech deemed anti Semitic in protests related to the war in Gaza. Critics argue the order targets those who criticize Israel.Executive Order 14161 prohibits noncitizens living in the U.S. from expressing a “hostile attitude” towards U.S. “citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles” under penalty of deportation. Both orders violate plaintiffs’ First and Fifth Amendment rights, the suit alleges, by wrongfully restricting speech “based on viewpoint,” threatening “severe penalties” such as deportation or criminal prosecution and granting the federal government “unfettered discretion” to determine what speech is protected. Taal’s lawyers say he has purposefully restricted his speech in fear of being deported as retaliation, like skipping public meetings and protests he once frequented, “fearing his words will be misinterpreted or reported to authorities,” according to the suit. The suit says Taal has turned down and cancelled speaking engagements since the orders were signed that required he travel internationally in fear he would be barred from reentering the U.S.Eric Lee, lead counsel on the case and Taal’s Michigan-based immigration lawyer, wrote in a statement posted on X Sunday that the lawsuit “aims to vindicate the rights of all non-citizens and citizens.” As co-counsel, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) released a statement Sunday announcing its role in the “historic” lawsuit, demanding an “immediate” nationwide injunction targeting student activities. Like Khalil, the suit argues Taal’s activism and resulting national media attention have made him a target for Republican officials and supporters of Trump’s executive orders, including pro-Zionist groups like Betar, an Israeli non-profit organization.Both men were included on a list Betar compiled in November 2024 of pro-Palestinian foreign students it wanted deported. The suit claims the group sent the list to lawmakers, including Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) of the House Committee on Ways and Means. The suit alleges Betar’s actions in-part prompted Smith to write a letter to former Cornell President Martha Pollack dated March 21, 2024 citing Taal’s public comments as “examples of speech that should be curtailed.” The suit also argues the Congressional committee had “dedicated resources to monitoring protest activity at Cornell.” Taal has been suspended twice for his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests. He was first suspended in April 2024 for participating in the encampment on Cornell’s Arts Quad.He was suspended again in September, along with 13 other Cornell students, after pushing past a university police blockade to disrupt a career fair where weapons manufacturers Boeing and L3Harris were recruiting. Three students were arrested in connection to the action, including Parasurama. At a hearing last November at the Ithaca City Court, Parasurama pleaded not guilty to charges of obstructing government administration and unlawful assembly.After Taal’s second suspension, Cornell’s international services office notified the graduate student that it had begun the process of canceling his F-1 student visa. The university ultimately halted the process and reversed Taal’s suspension after two appeals, but barred him from campus.“When we are attacked for speech, we have to exercise even more of it. Now is not the time to retreat but to double down,” Taal wrote in a statement about the suit. “This is a fight for a future free from oppression. A fight that refuses to normalize genocide and our ability to speak out against it.” For co-plaintiff’s Wa Ngũgĩ and Parasurama, the suit argues the orders are “prohibiting them from speaking, hearing, or engaging with viewpoints critical of the U.S. government or the Israeli government” because they “have been deprived of their rights to listen to Taal’s […] political insights into the historical, political, and sociological roots of what they understand to be a genocide against the people of Palestine.”Wa Ngũgĩ called himself Taal’s mentor, professor and friend in a statement he posted Sunday on his X account. He wrote that he has stopped engaging with Taal in public as a result of the executive orders. “I want to help [Taal] develop his scholarship, but this is very hard to do under conditions where I’m worried about whether the university or outside forces will monitor and report the things we say say to each other, either in class, in departmental meetings or otherwise,” Wa Ngũgĩ wrote. The suit claims Parasurama has also stopped interacting with Taal in public in fear either could be deported or arrested as a result. The post Cornell grad student sues Trump administration to stop targeted deportation efforts appeared first on The Ithaca Voice.First published by The Ithaca Voice.

Daily Archives: March 18, 2025

Cornell grad student sues Trump administration to stop targeted deportation efforts

Library director resigns amid public criticism, investigations