Anti-Israel protester Momodou Taal, a Cornell University international graduate student who sued the Trump administration after he was threatened with deportation, is dismissing his case and has decided to leave the U.S. voluntarily.
Lawyers for Taal filed the notice on Monday night to dismiss the case without prejudice, suggesting they reserve the right to bring it again.
The Ivy League student, who holds dual citizenship in the United Kingdom and Gambia, said that although he intended to progress the lawsuit, he decided to leave the country instead, fearing for his safety.
“Today I took the decision to leave the United States, free and with my head held high,” Taal wrote in a post on X on Monday.
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Anti-Israel protester Momodou Taal said on Monday that he has decided to voluntarily leave the U.S. following efforts to sue the Trump administration. (X/@MomodouTaal)
“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,” he continued.
Despite leaving the country, Taal still said, “Long live the student intifada!”
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Momodou Taal is a British-Gambian foreign student who had his visa revoked after engaging in anti-Israel protests. (X/@MomodouTaal)
Taal has challenged two executive orders that the Trump administration used in its crackdown on foreign students who engaged in anti-Israel protests across the nation.
One executive order stated that “immediate action will be taken by the Department of Justice to protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.”
Another order listed in Taal’s lawsuit was “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,” which sought to strengthen the vetting processes for individuals seeking entry into the U.S.
ANTI-ISRAEL IVY LEAGUE STUDENT IN US ON VISA BEING URGED BY ICE TO SURRENDER: COURT DOCS
Momodou Taal, a dual citizen of Gambia and the U.K., was an international graduate student at Cornell University. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg/Getty)
After authorities revoked Taal’s student visa, the British-Gambian student filed an emergency motion to prevent an attempt to detain or deport him. However, on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth C. Coombe denied requests to temporarily halt his removal proceedings and the enforcement of the two executive orders.
Taal said he planned to submit a second briefing in court “with the hope that I could stay out of detention” but “lost faith” that he “could walk the streets without being abducted.”
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“This is of course not the outcome I had wanted going into this, but we are facing a government that has no respect for the judiciary or for the rule of the law,” he added.
Taal, who has been an anti-Israel student activist since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, has praised the “resistance” against Israel several times on his X account. Despite being accepted on a student visa in 2022, Taal has also posted about his “hatred” for the U.S. and called for “the end of the US empire.”
Fox News’ Michael Dorgan and Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
