Cornell University Student Says He Fled US Due to ’Trump’s Lawlessness’

By Staff, Agencies

Momodou Taal, a British-Gambian PhD student whose visa was revoked due to his involvement in pro-Palestine activism, says he fled the United States due to safety concerns, amid the “lawlessness” of the administration of President Donald Trump.

Cornell University graduate student Taal, who faced deportation after his visa was revoked, announced he would leave the US voluntarily after the Trump administration intervened and prevented his lawsuit from going to court.

“The decision to leave was very abrupt,” Taal said at Middle East Eye's Big Picture Podcast this week. “It became increasingly clear to me that even with a court order, my safety was not going to be guaranteed.”

Taal had sued the administration over its actions against pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide protesters, and the case was dropped on Monday.

“I could not walk around New York City with my head held high and not have the fear of being bungled into an unmarked vehicle.”

“I kept seeing the increasing lawlessness of the Trump administration,” Taal added.

This comes as the US continues with its crackdown on pro-Palestine activism.

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, was arrested last week in Somerville, Massachusetts.

According to a statement from the university's president, the arrest was linked to her pro-Palestine views expressed in a co-authored article.

Also last month, federal authorities arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and a Palestinian activist who helped organize campus protests against "Israel’s" genocidal war in Gaza across the US last year.

Khalil has been facing deportation despite being a legal permanent resident in the US.

Earlier, the Department of Homeland Security arrested Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian student who had taken part in protests at Columbia University, for allegedly overstaying her F-1 student visa.

During the interview, Taal reflected on watching the footage of Ozturk’s detention while in hiding in Ithaca, New York, describing the psychological toll he endured.

“I was in captivity. I had not seen sunlight for two and a half weeks. I was in hiding,” he said.

“I hear a loud bang and I’m thinking, ‘ok they’re here to get me’…my sleep was terrible in those two and a half weeks,” he said.

Taal also criticized US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statement that anti-"Israel" protest students have no right to a student visa, arguing that Washington has the right to revoke them.

“If the condition of your visa is now conditional on having no moral conscience, then the US can keep their visas…they will continue to lose the best people.”

Since becoming secretary of state in late January, Rubio has cancelled over 300 visas, many of them belonging to students, having personally signed off on every visa revocation.

Taal reiterated that he has no regrets in taking part in the anti-genocide protests.