24 hours ago - American Public News

ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell University graduate student and pro-Palestine activist Momodou Taal said Monday he decided to self-deport and leave the U.S. after the Trump administration initiated deportation proceedings against him. Taal was also one of three co-plaintiffs in a now-dismissed federal lawsuit that aimed to block two of the president’s executive orders.The announcement comes less than a week after the presiding judge in the federal lawsuit denied an order that would have blocked federal immigration officers from detaining Taal. Taal’s lead counsel Eric Lee also filed a notice Monday to voluntarily dismiss the federal lawsuit. Lee had previously said that the suit would continue regardless of Taal’s presence in the country. He did not give a reason for the change of course. In a post on social media, Taal wrote that he decided to leave the county Monday “free and with [his] head held high.” Taal is a dual citizen of both the U.K. and Gambia studying in the U.S. on an F-1 visa. “This is of course not the outcome I had wanted […] but we are facing a government that has no respect for the judiciary or for the rule of law,” Taal wrote. In an interview with The Ithaca Voice Tuesday, Taal declined to give his location but said he’s safe. He said he plans to complete his doctorate in Africana studies at Cornell remotely. “When it became clear that even with a court order I wouldn’t be safe, I thought the best thing for me would be to leave on my own terms,” Taal said in the interview.Taal considers his departure a “self-deportation,” adding that he did not inform the government of his plans to leave before doing so. He said he had “no problems” at the airport. “I just left,” Taal said. “I have no regrets. My activism will continue wherever I am.” Taal has played a key role in organizing on-campus pro-Palestine protests and events since the war in Gaza began in October 2023. He has faced disciplinary action, including a suspension that resulted in a three-year ban from campus.Dozens of other Cornell students have also faced disciplinary action over the past 18 months in connection to their pro-Palestine activism. Some have also been detained or arrested by campus police. On March 15, Taal sued the Trump administration seeking a national injunction against two executive orders signed in January, which he argued were being used to target pro-Palestine activists.The orders encourage legal penalties for speech the government deems antisemitic in the wake of the war. They also prohibit noncitizens living in the U.S. from expressing “hostile attitudes” towards the U.S. government and its “citizens, culture, institutions or founding principles.” The lawsuit was filed days after Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student and green card holder, was detained by federal agents at his apartment in Manhattan for participating in pro-Palestine protests. Khalil is being held without bail at an immigration detention center in Louisiana. The State Department revoked Taal’s student visa on March 14, the day before the lawsuit was filed. A court filing cites Taal’s involvement in “disruptive” protests on Cornell’s campus as the reasoning behind the decision.Taal was informed his visa had been revoked a week later on March 21, after a federal attorney emailed him “inviting” Taal to surrender himself to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Days earlier, two eyewitnesses reported seeing what appeared to be federal agents near Taal’s residence in Ithaca.In a pair of emergency motions, Taal’s lawyers attempted to block agents from detaining Taal. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Coombe ultimately denied the requests following a hearing in Syracuse.Coombe wrote in her decision that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over Taal’s separate immigration proceedings, siding with the Trump administration. Taal wrote Monday that his legal team had been poised to submit a second brief “with the hope [he] could stay out of detention whilst the lawsuit progressed.” He said he ultimately had decided to leave the country and drop the lawsuit before the brief was submitted to the court. “Trump did not want me to have my day in court and sent ICE agents to my home and revoked my visa. We held out, but our first motion was denied,” Taal wrote Monday. “Given what we have seen across the U.S., I have lost faith that a favorable ruling from the courts would guarantee my personal safety and ability to express my beliefs.”Taal’s departure comes amid a spate of immigration enforcement actions against international students involved in pro-Palestine activism in the U.S.The post Cornell activist self-deports, drops free speech lawsuit against Trump appeared first on The Ithaca Voice.First published by The Ithaca Voice.

Daily Archives: April 1, 2025

Cornell activist self-deports, drops free speech lawsuit against Trump

The Ithaca Voice recognized twice at New York Press Association awards

Cornell student, Ithaca local running for Common Council