U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the East Room at the White House Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, in Washington (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP).
The Trump administration is pushing for the deportation of a Cornell University graduate and activist who had his student visa revoked “hours” before he filed a lawsuit against the president and Department of Homeland Security over the arrests of people “participating in demonstration[s] in support of Palestine.”
Trump’s Justice Department claims it’s simply due to a “lack of lawful immigration status,” while the student’s legal team calls the push a “naked attempt at intimidation.”
Momodou Taal, the activist being sought for deportation, is one of three students at the New York Ivy League college, along with a Cornell professor, who are suing Trump for what they say is a “campaign against free speech — particularly as it targets international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights,” according to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).
The ADC, along with co-counsel, is representing Taal and claims Trump has “unconstitutionally silenced” him and other people living in the United States from “speaking, hearing, or engaging with viewpoints critical of the U.S. government” through deportation and EOs, the group’s lawsuit says. The ADC points to the recent detainment and attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, described in the lawsuit as “a former Columbia University graduate student and prominent participant in pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations.”
