A foreign graduate student at Cornell University has self-deported after filing a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s orders on anti-Israel demonstrations and those receiving visas.
“Today I took the decision to leave the United States free and with my head held high,” Momodou Taal wrote on social media.
“Given what we have seen across the United States, I have lost faith that a favourable ruling from the courts would guarantee my personal safety and ability to express my beliefs. I have lost faith I could walk the streets without being abducted,” Taal added. “Weighing up these options, I took the decision to leave on my own terms.”
The lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by Taal and two other students claimed that the orders have “unconstitutionally silenced Plaintiffs and chilled protected expression, prohibiting them from speaking, hearing, or engaging with viewpoints critical of the U.S. government or the government of Israel, under threat of criminal prosecution or deportation.”
“These Orders violate the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and must be enjoined, at least in part,” the lawsuit said.
Taal was suspended in 2024 after being involved in a pro-Palestine encampment.
A White House fact sheet on Trump’s efforts to combat anti-semitism quotes him as saying: “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
