A student graduated from Cornell University whose visa was revoked after being involved in a trial against the Trump administration about his actions against pro-Palestinian students, demonstrators announced on Monday that he would leave the United States voluntarily.
Momodou Taal, a double citizen of the United Kingdom and Gambia, said on X who made the decision to leave the country “free and with my head high”.
“Given what we have seen in the United States, I lost the faith that a favorable decision of the courts would guarantee my personal security and my ability to express my beliefs,” wrote Taal. “I lost the faith that I could walk in the streets without being removed. Passing these options, I made the decision to leave on my own conditions.”
Taal, 31, said it was not the result he wanted to continue the Trump administration last month with two American citizens – a Cornell Professor and a Doctorate. Student – Demoupe his decrees to “fight against anti -Semitism” on university campuses and expel foreign nationals who, according to the administration, constitute national security threats.
In the trial, Taal and the other complainants argued that the radical orders of the administration “have silenced the complainants unconstitutionally and the protected expression, prohibiting them from speaking, hearing or engaging with critical points of view towards the American government or the government of Israel, under the threat of criminal prosecution or deportation.”
The Administration revoked at least 300 student visas of people born abroad, most of which were part of the pro-Palestinian movement which swept campuses last year, notably the National Rumeysa Ozturk Turkish. A green card holder, Mahmoud Khalil, was also detained and took place in Louisiana since her arrest on March 8.
Taal said he had decided to continue the Trump administration hoping that this would protect him as well as others in similar situations. Shortly after the continuation of the prosecution, the Ministry of Justice asked Taal to go to the immigration authorities.
Taal and his lawyer, Eric Lee, said the administration had sent immigration and customs agents to his home, revoked his student visa and took action to prevent the trial from going to court. According to Lee, the unidentified authorities arrived outside the Taal student building and asked others on him before the staff members asked them to leave. Ice did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Taal said the first request for the trial had been rejected and that he was going to submit a second briefing to keep him out of detention while the trial was underway. The trial was rejected Monday evening on behalf of the three complainants after Taal’s announcement, Lee told NBC News.
“This is of course not the result that I wanted to enter this area, but we are faced with a government which has no respect for the judiciary or for the rule of the law,” wrote Taal on X.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments on the Taal declaration and the costume is abandoned.
Taal ended his post with a warning that the repression of the administration against pro-Palestinian activists establishes a dangerous precedent.
“The repression of Palestinian solidarity is now used to carry out a wholesale attack against any form of expression which calls into question the oppressive and operating relations in the United States,” he wrote.
