Betar US, a pro-Israel and Zionist organization, claimed responsibility for reporting Momodou Taal to the federal government in a statement posted to X on March 21, after the Department of Justice told Taal to surrender himself into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
ICE requested that Taal, a pro-Palestinian activist and international graduate student, turn himself in to law enforcement on March 21, after he filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the Trump administration violated his First and Fifth Amendment rights. The Department of State revoked his F-1 visa on March 14, one day before Taal filed the lawsuit.
Taal did not receive notice of his visa revocation until March 21, according to court documents. The Department of State claimed that Taal “had been involved with disruptive protests and had engaged in an escalating pattern of behavior, disregarding university policies and creating a hostile environment for Jewish students.”
Following the reported presence of unidentified law enforcement outside Taal’s residence on March 20, Taal’s lawyers filed a temporary restraining order to preemptively block his arrest or detainment, according to affidavits attained by The Sun. The Department of Justice later sent an email requesting that Taal turn himself into ICE.
Betar has previously targeted Taal in “deportation alerts” posted to X. In November, the “Zionist organization” provided “hundreds of names to the Trump administration” of visa holders and “naturalized Middle Easterners and foreigners” who engaged in pro-Palestine speech or protest activity, said Daniel Levy, a Betar spokesperson, in an email to The Sun.
“Betar confirms that [Momodou Taal] was among those on our list of jihadis which we submitted to various government offices for deportation. We are pleased he has been ordered to surrender to [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” the organization wrote on X on March 21. “We have repeatedly tweeted about him and been quoted on him as being on our list.”
The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative newspaper headquartered in Washington, D.C., named Taal in a February list of the most prominent “foreign students” who had a leading role in pro-Palestinian protests. The lawsuit states that the Beacon “specifically refer[s] to [Taal] as the first and most important target who could face investigation or deportation under a potential Trump executive order.”
Four people featured in the Beacon article included Momodou Taal, Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi and Mosab Abu Toha. Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist and green card holder, is currently being held in a Louisiana detention center and faces potential deportation for his role in Columbia’s pro-Palestinian activism.
“We urge the Trump Administration to deport many more Mahmoud’s and many more Momodou’s,” Betar posted on X. “We have reason to believe that Mosab Abu Toha and Mohsen Mahdawi are on the short list of those who will shortly be deported.”
Eric Lee, one of Taal’s attorneys, called Momodou’s situation “completely unprecedented” in a public Q&A session on March 20.
“This is total lawlessness—the fact that law enforcement came to Momodou’s house … 72 hours after he filed the federal court action exercising his right to redress,” Lee said. “There is nothing normal about the present political situation.”
In response to Momodou facing deportation and the threat to free speech on Cornell’s campus, on March 23, several Jewish Cornell students, faculty, staff and alumni published a statement titled, “Jewish Cornellians Stand with Momodou Taal. Not in Our Name.”
The statement “vehemently reject[s]” the Trump administration’s claims that Momodou Taal created a “hostile environment” for Jewish students on campus and warns that framing it as such “dangerously conflates feeling uncomfortable and being unsafe.”
“In revoking Taal’s student visa, surveilling his home, and threatening his right to due process, the administration is once again enacting unconstitutional, anti-immigrant policies on the false pretense of protecting Jewish people, specifically Jewish Cornellians,” the statement says.
The statement echoes a similar statement titled “Not in Our Name.” authored on March 11 by a group of faculty and staff from several Boston-area colleges and universities, referring to the Trump administration’s attempts to “politicize Jewish identity.”
Hannah Shvets '27 signed the Cornell statement and said that she was offended by the Trump administration declaring that their recent executive orders and actions are to protect Jewish students and make Jews few safer on campus.
“We don't want our Judaism to be weaponized,” Shvets said, referring to the Jewish community. “I don't feel like Momodou and other people protesting makes me unsafe. [The Trump Administration is] just using our faith to … crack down on protests.”
Shvets stated that while she recognized some of the names of people who had signed the statement, there were several people who she did not know or were part of different activist groups on campus.
“[The statement] brings together all sorts of Jews across different political lines,” Shvets said. “And it really goes to show that being against deportation and being against Trump limiting speech is a value that a lot of Jews hold. No matter what we think about Israel and Palestine, we can unite on the fact that deporting people is wrong.”
However, Ezra Galperin '27 disagreed with the March 23 statement, stating that he feels that Taal’s has created a hostile environment for Jewish students.
“The fact is that on October 7, 2023 Momodou tweeted, among other things, ‘Glory to the resistance,’” Galperin said. “On multiple occasions, [Taal is] seemingly justifying the butchering of Jews everywhere. There is no world in which that does not constitute creating a hostile environment for Jews.”
In the statement, Jewish Cornell students, faculty, staff and alumni wrote that they believe Taal’s expression of personal political opinions are within his First Amendment rights.
Shvets reflected that the right to protest is a “really important” part of being a student and person.
“Momodou and other students have a right to express their … opinions and protest. Everyone has a right to protest,” Shvets said. “I think that this is just the beginning, and they're coming for the most vulnerable people first — they’re coming for immigrants. It's a bigger pattern of Trump and his administration repressing speech.”
