Pro-Palestinian British Student Leaves US Citing Fear of Detention

Washington (Quds News Network)- A British student at Cornell University, who was twice suspended for participating in pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide protests on campus, has left the US. He cited fears of detention and personal safety following ongoing threats of deportation by the Trump administration.

Momodou Taal, a doctoral candidate in Africana studies and dual citizen of the UK and the Gambia, has participated in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Last month, his attorneys said that he was asked to turn himself in and that his student visa was being revoked.

Last year, Taal was in a group of activists who disrupted a career fair on campus that featured weapons manufacturers and the university thereafter ordered him to study remotely. He previously posted online that “colonised peoples have the right to resist by any means necessary”.

Taal filed a lawsuit in mid-March to block deportations of protesters, a bid that was denied by a judge last week.

The activist had his student visa revoked even before he filed the lawsuit and was asked to surrender to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“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,” Taal said on X on Monday.

“The repression of Palestinian solidarity is now being used to wage a wholesale attack on any form of expression that challenges oppressive and exploitative relations in the U.S. … For every person that has remained silent, just know that you are not safe either. Is the imprisonment of those who speak out against a genocide a reflection of your values? Is this the kind of nation you want to live in?”

Update:

Eid Mubarak

Long live the student intifada! pic.twitter.com/LDwKS9SG6C

— Momodou ✊🏿 (@MomodouTaal) March 31, 2025

The student did ask a judge to order the government not to deport him, which was rejected, and the same judge denied his request to halt the two executive orders that led to the crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.

The student was previously suspended twice by Cornell for his participation in protests.

Taal is reportedly the second international student to leave the US after being targeted by the US, which the Trump administration describes as “self deportations”.

Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Activism

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that the State Department may have revoked more than 300 visas of students.

During a press conference in Guyana, Rubio said the Trump administration was looking every day for “these lunatics”. His comments were in response to a question about Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student who was detained by federal immigration authorities on Tuesday near Boston by masked and plainclothes agents.

“It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,” Rubio said.

“At some point, I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them, but we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.”

Rubio confirmed that the State Department revoked Ozturk’s visa and said Washington would take away any visa that has been previously issued if students participated in actions such as “vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus”. Rubio did not say if Ozturk participated in those activities.

A video emerged showing Ozturk, a Tufts University graduate student, being arrested in the street in Massachusetts by ICE officers. The DHS said she was arrested for “glorifying and supporting terrorists” and added that she had shown support for Hamas.

Ozturk is one of several foreign nationals connected to prestigious American universities who were arrested under the Trump administration for their pro-Palestine and anti-genocide activism.

A court order Friday blocked Ozturk’s deportation while U.S. District Judge Denise Casper determines whether she has jurisdiction over the case.

In March, pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by ICE. Khalil had been one of the leaders of pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University last spring. He was taken from his student apartment building in lower Manhattan, and then to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before being transferred to Louisiana.

In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump described the arrest of Khalil as “the first arrest of many to come”.

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said.

Columbia University also lost $400 million in federal funding after being named on a list of schools accused of failure to address antisemitism. 60 universities could also face funding cuts if federal investigations show evidence that they have permitted antisemitic behavior.

As he campaigned for a second term in the White House, Trump pledged to stop the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that erupted after Israel launched its deadly war on Gaza and deport any foreign students involved.

Upon taking office, he began to issue executive actions signalling he would carry out his threats.
“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,” Trump said in a White House fact sheet.

“I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

Earlier, Yale University suspended Iranian scholar Helyeh Doutaghi from its law school after a Jewish news website, which uses AI to generate articles, accused her of being a member of a ‘terrorist group.’ Doutaghi said she is a “loud and proud” supporter of Palestinian rights.

Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and post-doctoral fellow working at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, was detained by US customs agents, accusing him of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media”. The US administration intends to deport him after labeling him as a threat to U.S. foreign policy due to his and his wife’s support for Palestinian rights.

Ozturk is now the third international student known to be transferred to Louisiana after being detained by federal officers. Khalil and Badar Khan Suri were both transferred to an ICE detention facility in Jena.

Columbia student Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old permanent U.S. resident, also faces a deportation order but a judge ruled this week that she cannot be detained.

An Iranian doctoral student at the University of Alabama, Alireza Doroudi, and a Russian medical researcher at Harvard University, Kseniia Petrova, were both detained by immigration agents as well.