US immigration officials on Friday sent an email to the legal team of Momodou Taal, a Cornell University student who has participated in pro-Palestinian protests, asking him to turn himself in, Taal’s attorneys said in a court filing.
A “notice to appear” sent by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials is among the first steps in the deportation process.
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.
President Donald Trump has pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters and accused them of supporting Hamas and being antisemitic.
Taal’s attorneys called the development a free speech assault. Taal previously filed a lawsuit to block deportations of protesters. He has said he was doxxed.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say their critics wrongly conflate their criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights with antisemitism and support for Hamas.
“ICE invites Mr Taal and his counsel to appear in-person at the (Homeland Security Investigations Office) in Syracuse at a mutually agreeable time for personal service of the (Notice to Appear) and for Mr Taal to surrender to ICE custody,” a US government email said, according to the filing on Friday.
No timeline was mentioned.
ICE had no immediate comment.
The crackdown on disruptive activists
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.
Trump’s administration has also attempted to deport other foreigners in its crackdown on pro-Palestinian voices. Human rights advocates have widely condemned the moves.
Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil was arrested this month and is legally challenging his detention.
Trump, without evidence, accused Khalil of supporting Hamas. Khalil denies links to the terrorist group that Washington considers a “foreign terrorist organization.”
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian studying at Georgetown University, was detained this week. Suri’s lawyer denies his client supported Hamas. A federal judge barred Suri’s deportation.
Taal’s lawsuit cited advocacy against him by the militant pro-Israel group Betar US, which says it has submitted names of protesters eligible for deportation to the government.
“Betar confirms that @MomodouTaal was among those on our list of jihadis which we submitted to various government offices for deportation,” the group tweeted on Friday. “We are pleased he has been ordered to surrender to @ICEgov.“
Using the formulation “Shalom Momodou,” reflecting a recent Trump administration catchphrase intended to be threatening, the group said it urged more deportations, including of “jihadis who have [become] naturalized citizens.”
The group also said it had “reason to believe” that two other pro-Palestinian activists it has lobbied against — Mohsen Madawi, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia, and Mosab Abu Toha, a poet who is working at Syracuse University after fleeing Gaza in late 2023 — are “on the short list of those who will shortly be deported.”
It is unclear how much the group’s advocacy has set priorities for the Trump administration as it carries out its vow to deport “Hamas sympathizers” on college campuses. But Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia protest leader who is facing deportation despite holding a green card, faced criticism from the group shortly before he was arrested earlier this month.
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