Cornell University Graduate Student Facing Deportation After Participating in a Palestine Solidarity Protest

Momodou Taal, an Africana Studies doctoral student at Cornell University, is facing deportation after participating in a Palestine solidarity protest.

Taal, who is from the United Kingdom and at Cornell studying on an F-1 visa, is part of the Coalition for Mutual Liberation. He was suspended from his doctoral program and his teaching assignment after participating in a protest with the group of nearly 100 other protesters last week. The Coalition was protesting at a campus career fair after learning that Boeing and L3Harris, defense companies that support Israel, would be there recruiting students.

Because of the rules attached to the F-1 visa program, a visa-holder’s suspension from their academic program is reason enough to terminate their visa status, triggering deportation.

Campus officials insists they do not have the power to deport Taal, or anybody else, for that matter. However, Taal’s attorney disagrees. In a statement attorney Eric Lee, has called the university’s punishment of his client “a cynical sleight of hand,” given that “the administration has made the decision to persecute Mr. Taal for free speech activity knowing full well that doing so will subject him to serious immigration consequences” that set “a dangerous national precedent.”

In a social media post, Taal, who alleges university leaders rejected his initial suspension appeal without a proper investigation, insisted, “I maintain that all my actions have been peaceful and in accordance with my First Amendment rights. This is a deliberate targeting of a Black Muslim student at an institution where those two identities are increasingly unwelcome. When it comes to Palestine the university will abandon all commitments to academic freedom and free speech to protect its corporate interests.”

Taal must next appeal to Cornell’s interim provost, John Siliciano if he hopes to remain enrolled in his PhD program.