Pro-Israel watchdog takes credit after Cornell pro-Palestinian activist is told to surrender to ICE
Fearing arrest, Momodou Taal had preemptively sued the Trump administration
Momodou Taal addresses fellow students at a Cornell University pro-Palestinian demonstration in April 2024. (Screenshot from Cornell Daily Sun video)
(JTA) — A pro-Palestinian activist at Cornell University has been ordered to report to immigration authorities, in a sign that the Trump administration is planning to deport him.
Momodou Taal, a Gambian-British national who was briefly suspended from Cornell over his activism, had preemptively sued to block any effort to deport him, saying that the administration was penalizing protected speech in its mass crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters.
Now, his lawyers have filed for a restraining order against the government, saying he has been told to “surrender to ICE custody” at a Department of Homeland Security office in Syracuse, New York, about 50 miles north of Cornell. Taal’s supporters have demonstrated on campus this week after observing what they believed to be law enforcement outside his home.
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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