Momodou Taal hails from a political lineage and drew inspiration from Malcolm X. He became involved in a pro-Palestinian movement, which resulted in his suspension. At this moment, he is striving to remain in the United States.
Momodou Taal, a British-Gambian Ph.D. student, is facing potential deportation due to his pro-Palestinian activism at Cornell. He expressed that he never anticipated becoming involved in an American protest movement upon his arrival on campus in 2022.
He had primarily found satisfaction in studying, teaching, and focussing on his dissertation, which examined sovereignty and political economy in Guinea.
Politics has always been a part of his lineage; he is the great-grandson of Gambia’s first president, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara. His interest in the Palestinian cause began in his teenage years.
He pursued his studies in Arabic and Sharia law in Cairo. When war erupted in Gaza, Mr. Taal, 31, felt a growing inclination to participate in the protests on Cornell’s campus, as he shared in a phone interview this week.
On the day of the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, Mr. Taal shared a post online stating, “Glory to the Resistance.” Cornell imposed two suspensions on him due to his activities in the subsequent year.
As numerous tents were erected on the campus lawn to advocate for the school’s divestment from companies involved in the conflict, he stood out as one of the group’s leaders who remained steadfast for two weeks without disbanding. Subsequently, he faced suspension due to his involvement in a chaotic protest.
Currently, he is among at least nine international students that the Trump administration is attempting to expel from the country as part of its commitment to address what it describes as antisemitic activities.
However, in contrast to several other students who have been apprehended by immigration agents and confined in a detention facility in Louisiana, Mr. Taal has not been detained thus far. Prior to any potential detention, he initiated a pre-emptive lawsuit and is currently contesting his detention in court. This week, he chose not to disclose his location during the interview.
Mr. Taal, apprehensive about the possibility of being taken into custody, chose not to attend the hearing for his court case on Tuesday. However, he also stated that he would willingly surrender if the court mandated it.
“This process is constantly looming over me, and it has affected every facet of my life. “I already feel like a prisoner, despite merely exercising my rights,” Mr. Taal stated in court documents.
A court ruling on Thursday that denied a request to postpone government action against Mr. Taal appeared to heighten the likelihood of his detention or deportation; however, another hearing in the case is set for next week.
On January 29, President Trump signed an executive order stating that it would be U.S. policy to utilise “all available and appropriate legal tools,” including the “removal” of aliens involved in “unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.”
“It is evident that numerous students at Columbia and various universities nationwide have participated in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, and anti-American activities,” Mr. Trump stated in a social media post on March 10. “We will locate, detain, and remove these individuals who support terrorism from our nation — ensuring they never return.”
Mr. Trump’s remark came after the initial detention of these students on March 8, when ICE agents apprehended Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student from Columbia. Among them is Yunseo Chung, a legal permanent resident who relocated to the United States from South Korea at the age of 7. As a student at Columbia, she took part in pro-Palestinian protests.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, was detained by ICE officers. Last year, she co-authored an essay in the Tufts student newspaper that critiqued the university administration’s response to the war in Gaza.
Officials within the Trump administration have contended in various instances that a “visa is a privilege, not a right.”
Civil libertarians have described the deportation effort as one of the most significant attacks on free speech in decades.
In contrast to Mr. Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States, Mr. Taal, who possesses joint citizenship from the United Kingdom and Gambia, is present on a student visa. Attorneys representing Mr Taal have asserted that attempts to deport him infringe upon his First Amendment rights.
Mr. Taal was raised in the United Kingdom, where his parents had immigrated, and he mentioned that he addressed the British Parliament at the age of 15. At one time, he had the ambition to become the first Black prime minister of Britain.
During that period, an individual presented him with “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” Mr. Taal expressed that he felt inspired, noting his identity as both a Muslim and Black.
He arrived at Cornell in 2022 to pursue a Ph.D. in Africana studies.
Following the outbreak of war in Gaza, he became a member of a newly established campus organisation, the Cornell Coalition for Mutual Liberation. During the autumn of 2023, the group organised demonstrations at prominent buildings, hosted a “leftist potluck” and even conducted a mock trial targeting Cornell’s president at the time, Martha Pollack.
Mr. Taal, whose endeavours received significant attention from the campus newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, took on the role of “intercampus liaison” for the organisation and became a prominent figure at rallies.
In February 2024, during a demonstration outside Cornell’s Day Hall, he led chants following the rejection of a resolution by Cornell’s student assembly to terminate university partnerships with companies supplying weapons to Israel.
“We stand united with the armed resistance in Palestine from the river to the sea,” Mr. Taal expressed to the crowd on campus after the vote.
Certain individuals on campus perceived those statements as menacing. The expression “from the river to the sea” has been understood by certain Jews as a call for the genocide of the state of Israel.
Mr. Taal has expressed that he perceives it as a demand for the liberation of Palestine.
“I understand that there have been occasions when some of my comments have not been well received,” remarked Mr. Taal. However, he stated, “I’ve never been violent.” I have never faced a conviction for any crime. I have never been arrested.
When questioned about his social media post from October 7, he clarified that he did not endorse a specific Palestinian group. “What I advocate is the Palestinian right to resist colonialism, as upheld by international law and the principle of self-determination,” he added.
Court documents indicate that a pro-Zionist organisation known as Betar had been monitoring Mr. Taal’s activities. According to Mr. Taal’s lawsuit, the group included him on a list of students that it was distributing to members of Congress, advocating for their deportation.
In a recent post on X, Betar claimed responsibility for federal actions to deport Mr. Taal.
Eliza Salamon, a 2024 graduate of Cornell University and a participant in the Cornell protests, stated that the allegations of antisemitism directed at Mr. Taal are baseless.
“I’ve consistently observed Momodou showing the highest level of respect to everyone, and I find it deeply troubling that these unfounded accusations of antisemitism are being used as a weapon,” she stated.
By April 2024, Mr. Taal’s activism had reached a critical point for Cornell’s administration. He acted as the official representative for a camp consisting of 17 tents, housing 50 students, that had been set up on Cornell’s Arts Quad.
On April 26, Cornell officials informed Mr. Taal of his temporary suspension due to his failure to comply with requests to dismantle the encampment, as well as several other infractions, including disruptive and loud behaviour.
In September, Mr. Taal found himself at odds with the administration once more, as a group of students marched into the Statler Hotel on campus to voice their dissent against a career fair featuring exhibitors from weapons manufacturers. Cornell has once more suspended Mr. Taal, stating that he disregarded police directives and took part in chants that were deemed “unreasonably loud.”
Mr. Taal was concerned about the possibility of losing his visa.
As a petition in his favour amassed thousands of signatures, the university allowed him to stay in his Ph.D. program, provided he continued his studies remotely. He could no longer teach his class, titled “What is Blackness,” which analysed how the conception of race varies based on geography. He would have qualified to come back to campus at the conclusion of this semester.
Cornell University has yet to provide any comments regarding his detention.
“The Immigration and Nationality Act does not contain any provisions that render an individual deportable for participating in a protest,” stated Eric T. Lee, the attorney representing Mr. Taal, during a court hearing in Syracuse, N.Y., on Tuesday. “We request that this court annul these orders.” They are clearly unconstitutional.
Mr. Lee stated that the lawsuit serves as a test case regarding the government’s ability to imprison individuals for their speech.
Mr. Taal expressed his desire to have the opportunity to stay in the country while he finishes his dissertation. On March 20, approximately 200 students gathered at Cornell for an emergency rally to express their support.
