Could a Pro-Palestinian Protest Lead to This International Student’s Deportation?

As the anniversary of the Oct. 7 breakout of war nears, pro-Palestine demonstrations—and crackdowns on them—have continued on U.S. campuses. All along, the student protesters who aren’t U.S. citizens have had an additional threat hanging over them: For those on F-1 student visas, university suspensions can lead to deportation.

While it doesn’t appear that a student has been deported yet during the Biden administration over pro-Palestinian activism, former president Trump and other Republicans have called for that to change after the November election. But in the meantime, an international student at Cornell University says he’s been told to leave the country after a second suspension.

Momodou Taal, a British citizen, says he’s facing deportation a second time after the university again suspended him for pro-Palestinian advocacy. Taal shared emails with Inside Higher Ed from a senior associate dean saying he’s been banned from campus and has “demonstrated a pattern of escalating, egregious behavior and a disregard for the university policies that exist to protect and respect the rights of all members of our community.”

The dean wrote, per the emails, that “once you are administratively withdrawn from the fall 2024 term, your visa status will change” and “upon termination of F-1 [visa] status it is advisable to depart the U.S. as soon as possible so as to minimize the time you are out of status within the U.S.”

The suspension was handed down after protesters succeeded in shutting down—via chants, instruments and noisemakers—a university-hosted career fair at Ithaca’s Statler Hotel at which two weapons manufacturers were represented. Taal provided Inside Higher Ed a complaint from a campus police officer saying Taal had violated the Cornell student code of conduct in multiple ways, including by entering the hotel, where the university was hosting a career fair, “immediately behind individuals who had used forced [sic] to gain entry.”

Taal said he’s also been suspended both from classes and from teaching his course, What Is Blackness? Race and Processes of Racialization. He told Inside Higher Ed the university suspended him for the first time in the spring regarding his alleged participation in a protest encampment. He disputes those allegations, along with the new ones.

According to Taal’s account, an employee in Cornell’s Office of Global Learning “told me once they closed my file, then I have to leave the country promptly, and there’s no grace period.” Taal posted on X that “I had no chance to dispute the charges, nor see the evidence or appeal. They informed me that I am effectively being deported by the weekend.”

Cornell declined an interview request and didn’t answer a list of written questions from Inside Higher Ed. “Federal privacy law prohibits the university from providing the student-specific information and records you are requesting,” spokesperson Rebecca Valli said in an email.

The university’s interim president and interim provost did issue a statement Monday on the protest that said, “Individuals who entered the Statler and disrupted the career fair face immediate suspension or employment sanctions up to and including dismissal. Any protesters who engaged in criminal activity will be referred to the Tompkins County District Attorney.” Taal said he did enter Statler and faces university charges, but not criminal ones.

International students on visas can be deported after being suspended by their universities for academic or disciplinary reasons. But Jeff Khurgel, an immigration attorney in California, said it’s “very unlikely” that deportation would happen as expediently as Taal fears. Khurgel said immigration courts are backed up “for months if not years.”

“They’re entitled to due process, they’re entitled to a hearing before a judge and they’ll have a chance to defend themselves,” the lawyer said. He also said such deportations very rarely happen, “especially under the current [presidential] administration.”

That could change, however, if Republicans win the White House in November. “Any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave,” Trump reportedly told donors in May. Khurgel said the first Trump administration was “more proactive” about detaining and deporting international students. Among the few higher education–related goals in the Republican Party’s 2024 platform is a commitment to “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”

In response to Inside Higher Ed’s specific questions about Taal, Cornell sent Inside Higher Ed a broad statement about international students. Those “attending college in the U.S. on F-1 visas are obligated to comply with federal requirements to maintain their visa status,” Joel M. Malina, vice president for university relations, said in the statement. “These federal requirements include remaining enrolled as a full-time registered student. Universities are required by federal regulation to terminate the F-1 status for any student who is not permitted to be enrolled due to a disciplinary action.”

Malina said, “Universities can disallow enrollment and bar a student from campus, but do not have deportation powers.”

To that, Taal accused Cornell of “playing semantics.”

“What word shall I use for forcibly being told to leave the country?” Taal said.

The Protest

Taal and Yihun Stith, a spokesman for Cornell’s Coalition for Mutual Liberation, said last Wednesday’s protest began with a rally outside Day Hall, the administration building for Cornell, before the demonstrators entered the Statler Hotel, where they disrupted the career fair. Boeing and L3Harris, two weapons companies, were represented at the fair.

Stith described the Coalition for Mutual Liberation as an anti-imperialist group of more than 40 organizations, including Students for Justice in Palestine, Young Democratic Socialists of America and others. He said Taal was one of the speakers at the rally outside Day Hall and was in the hotel until the protesters shut down the career fair. Stith said he thinks that took about 20 to 30 minutes, and protesters used chants, pots, pans and instruments to do so.

Taal, however, said he was in the career fair section of the hotel for just five minutes. He said he left for two reasons: He left his iPad and laptop back outside Day Hall, and he also feared that the university was going to punish people for the chanting at the career fair and that he specifically would be targeted “because of my visibility” as a pro-Palestine advocate.

“They’re trying to make an example out of me to scare other students from being active on campus and engaging in their First Amendment right,” Taal said. He also said, “The level of oppression we’re facing is due to it being about Palestine,” and that he thinks he’s being singled out because he’s Black and Muslim.

The university’s interim president and interim provost released a statement Monday saying it was pursuing both disciplinary and criminal charges over the protest. “The demonstrators forcibly entered the hotel by pushing aside Cornell Police officers,” the university leaders wrote. “The protesters loudly marched through the hotel lobby and up the stairs, frightening students, staff and recruiters. Demonstrators forced their way past additional CUPD officers at the entrance to the Statler Ballroom, knocking off an officer’s body-worn camera.”

The statement said the protesters’ noise resulted in “medical complaints of potential hearing loss.” The leaders wrote that “actions have consequences, on campus and in the criminal justice system.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ New York chapter is calling for the suspension to be reversed. Taal said his lawyers are working to prevent his deportation.