A PhD candidate at Cornell University whose hatred of the United States “knows no bound” has been ordered to surrender to immigration auth...
A PhD candidate at Cornell University whose hatred of the United States “knows no bound” has been ordered to surrender to immigration authorities after his student visa was revoked by the Trump administration.
Momodou Taal, a dual citizen of Gambia and the United Kingdom, is a plaintiff in a lawsuit attempting to block the enforcement of Trump’s executive orders to deport foreign nationals who participated in anti-Israeli protests at various American universities. Taal is an outspoken left-wing activist whose academic career has centered on the study of Marxism, Islam, anti-colonialism and Pan-Africanism.
“We cannot allow international students, faculty, immigrants and people of conscience to live in fear,” Taal stated after filing 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. I expect this will be a long drawn out battle, but we will be victorious.”
On Friday, the Trump administration sent Taal and his legal counsel an e-mail informing him that his visa was revoked and that he was no longer welcome in the United States. “ICE invites Mr. Taal and his counsel to appear in-person at the HSI Office in Syracuse at a mutually agreeable time for personal service of the NTA and for Mr. Taal to surrender to ICE custody.”
Taal’s supporters claim that his visa was revoked as retaliation for the lawsuit.
“Lawyers at the so-called Justice Department made this request to his attorneys within hours of us having asked the court to stop them from doing precisely that,” immigration attorney Eric Lee told The Guardian. “It’s very difficult to explain how unprecedented this is.”
Hundreds of Cornell students and faculty rallied in support of Taal on Thursday, after a failed attempt by law enforcement to detain him.
“We have academic freedom on this campus; we have freedom of speech on this campus,” Cornell Professor Risa Lieberwitz said. “We will act together collectively to push back and to protect our colleagues, our students, and our staff.”
Those who support deporting Mr. Taal have pointed to his long history of violent anti-American rhetoric. In 2022, shortly before entering the United States, Taal wrote: “The end of the US in our lifetime in sha Allah [god willing].” He has also stated: “My Hatred of the US Empire knows no bounds” and that “absolutely anyone the US calls an enemy is my friend.”
As if to belabor the point, in the aftermath of the October 7th attacks, which killed roughly 1,200 civilians in Israel, including more than 40 Americans, Taal voiced his support for Hamas, stating: “Wherever you have oppression, you will find those who [are] fighting against it. Glory to the resistance!” In a 2024 campus demonstration, Taal told fellow protestors to take their “cue from the armed resistance in Palestine.”
Taal has also called for the destruction of the state of Israel, repeating genocidal slogans such as “from the river to the sea” and stating that “there can be no path forward except for the complete eradication of zionism.”
The case bears some similarities to the recent arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student whose green card was revoked in response to his participation in violent anti-Israel campus protests during his time as a grad student.
“In the past 48 hours, the administration has taken unprecedented steps to bypass the courts, by pressuring our client, Mr. Momodou Taal, to surrender to ICE,” Taal’s lawyer, Maria Kari, said in a statement. “This case is a litmus test for the state of free speech in America. Each of us – regardless of our political beliefs – should be alarmed by the government punishing people for their opinions.”
The Trump administration remains adamant that the deportation of Taal, Khalil, and their fellow travelers is a matter of national security, not an infringement on freedom of speech, and that immigration to the United States is a privilege and not a right.
“I find it ironic that a lot of these people out there defending the First Amendment speech, alleged free speech rights of these Hamas sympathizers, they had no problem pressuring social media to censor American political speech,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week during his appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “The bottom line is this, if you are in this country to promote Hamas, to promote terrorist organizations, to participate in vandalism, to participate in acts of rebellion and riots on campus … you’re going to leave. We don’t want terrorists in America.”