A Cornell graduate student who praised Hamas‘ October 7 attacks and organized pro-Palestine protests has been ordered to surrender to ICE officials – even though he hasn’t broken any laws.
Momodou Taal, a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and The Gambia, received the order shortly after asking a judge to bar the government from deporting him.
A doctoral candidate in Africana Studies at the prestigious New York university, Taal had filed a lawsuit a week ago requesting a judge strike down two of President Trump’s executive orders targeting foreign protesters at US campuses.
In the filing, Taal said he ‘lives in constant fear that he may be arrested by immigration officials or police as a result of his speech.’
Taal’s attorneys reportedly then received an email from the Justice Department at 1am Friday inviting him ‘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,’ reports CNN.
A notice to appeal is one of the formal steps toward deportation, however the email did not specify a deadline for the student to surrender to ICE.
Eric Lee, one of Taal’s attorneys, said in a filing on Friday that ‘it is not yet clear what grounds for removal the government alleges exist here.’
Taal had previously played a leading role in organizing pro-Palestine protests, and his X account includes a number of posts calling for the destruction of Israel and justifying the October 7 attacks by saying ‘colonized peoples have the right to resist by any means necessary.’
Momodou Taal, a Cornell graduate student who praised Hamas’ October 7 attacks and organized pro-Palestine protests, has been ordered to surrender to ICE officials
Taal made headlines with his lawsuit a week ago attempting to pre-emptively stop the government from deporting him, saying he feared he would be because his name had been floated on social media as a potential ICE target.
As of Friday evening the government had not yet filed a formal response to his legal action, while attorneys for Taal have asked the court to delay his surrender to ICE pending the outcome of his lawsuit.
The DOJ’s actions against Taal come as the Trump administration vowed to crack down on foreign nationals protesting on US campuses, particularly aimed at pro-Palestine organizers.
In recent weeks this has seen Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, 30, also detained by immigration authorities.
Neither Taal nor Khalil have been accused of breaking any laws, however the DHS previously said that Khalil was arrested because he ‘led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.’
Taal has faced backlash for his support for Hamas and its October 7 terrorist attack. He is pictured in an interview with CNN the month after the attacks, where he claimed it was ‘racist’ to ask him to condemn the terror group
The DOJ’s actions against Taal come as the Trump administration vowed to crack down on foreign nationals protesting on US campuses, with Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil (pictured) also detained earlier this month
Taal’s anticipated detainment appears to be on similar grounds, as he has made a number of statements in defense of Hamas and was suspended by Cornell twice last year for the disruption protests that he helped organize caused.
He had been warned that an academic suspension could cause his visa to be revoked, but Taal later came to an agreement with Cornell that allowed him to continue studying remotely.
The student had faced backlash for his inflammatory rhetoric about Israel and praise for Hamas, including a shocking response to the October 7 attacks.
On the day of the attacks in 2023, when terrorists aligned with the group murdered over 1,200 people in a horrific spree, Taal tweeted: ‘Glory to the resistance.’
And the day before the one-year anniversary of the attacks, he said in an X post that ‘colonized peoples have the right to resist by any means necessary.’
The student had faced backlash for his inflammatory rhetoric about Israel and praise for Hamas, including a shocking response to the October 7 attacks
On the day of the attacks in 2023, when terrorists aligned with the group murdered over 1,200 people in a horrific spree, Taal tweeted: ‘Glory to the resistance’
Protests sparked up on Cornell’s campus in response to Taal’s notice to appear, where attendees were seen holding signs reading ‘No Mass Deportations’ and ‘Hands Off Momodou’
In an interview with CNN in November 2023, Taal refused to apologize for his remarks about the terror group.
‘I think it’s quite racist, Islamophobic that before I’m allowed to have a view on genocide, I have to condemn a terrorist organization,’ he said.
Taal added that despite his tweets, he ‘can say clearly categorically I abhor the killing of all civilians no matter where they are and who does it.’
Protests sparked up on Cornell’s campus in response to Taal’s notice to appear, where attendees were seen holding signs reading ‘No Mass Deportations’ and ‘Hands Off Momodou.’
Alaa Farghli, a demonstrator at the event, told WBNG the protests came because ‘now, people are noticing.’
‘They want to come out,’ she said. ‘They don’t want to lose the civil liberties that they hold onto dearly.’
Taal is the great-grandson of Gambia’s first president, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, and is a citizen of both Gambia and the United Kingdom. It was not stated in the reported email where he may be deported to if he is booted from the US.
