A foreign student protester who celebrated the Oct. 7 massacre and repeatedly called for the downfall of the United States announced he’s leaving the country of his own volition.
Momodou Taal, a 31-year-old Gambian-UK dual national and Ph.D. student in Africana Studies at Cornell University, announced Monday evening that he’s leaving the U.S. The decision came after he preemptively sued the Trump administration for its crackdown on foreign students participating in alleged pro-Hamas activities and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) subsequent request to surrender to immigration authorities.
“Today I took the decision to leave the United States, free and with my head held high,” Taal posted on social media.
“I have lost faith I could walk the streets without being abducted,” he went on, lamenting his lawsuit proceedings. “Weighing these options, I took the decision to leave on my own terms.”
Taal began studying at Cornell University in 2022 on an F-1 student visa. In March, he sued the Trump administration in an attempt to stop two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump that targeted allegedly pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic foreign students for removal, arguing that the orders forced him to withdraw from public engagement and infringed on others’ right to listen to his anti-Israel rhetoric.
The State Department subsequently revoked his student visa and DHS asked him to turn himself in. In a March statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation about Taal’s legal challenge, the Department of Justice said it was “fighting in court to vigorously defend President Trump’s agenda and will continue to do so, especially when it comes to protecting Jewish Americans.”
Taal has repeatedly declared his hatred for the U.S. over the years on social media and he celebrated the massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists.
“The end of the US empire in our lifetime in sha Allah,” he posted online in February 2022. Just several months later, he — seemingly contradictorily — celebrated his acceptance into a U.S. university, writing “Student Visa issued. We going to America baby! Alhamdulillah! Let’s get this PhD.” Taal again expressed his contempt for America, posting “My hatred of the US empire knows no bound. Wallahi,” in November 2022.
Taal rejoiced online the day Hamas militants stormed into Israeli territory and killed roughly 1,200 people. “The dialect demands: That wherever you have oppression, you will find those who fighting against it. Glory to the resistance!” he posted in the early morning hours of Oct. 7, 2023.
“We are pleased Momodou Taal self deported from the United States,” Betar, a pro-Israel activist group, said to the DCNF. “Those who celebrate October 7th and call for the destruction of the United States have no place in this country.”
Taal’s announcement makes him the latest high-profile foreign student to self-deport following the Trump administration’s crackdown on alleged pro-Hamas activity on university campuses.
Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian national who entered the U.S. on a student visa, was involved in pro-Hamas activities during her time as a doctoral student at Columbia University, according to a March statement from DHS. Due to her alleged activities in support of Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, the State Department revoked her student visa. DHS later published footage of Srinivasan departing the U.S. using the CBP Home app, a newly minted app that includes a feature for illegal migrants to use when self-deporting.
Since re-entering the White House, Trump signed two proclamations — Executive Order 14161 and Executive Order 14188 — that aim to clamp down on anti-Semitism and pro-Hamas activity by foreign student protesters. His administration has since detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born green card holder who became the face of the anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University foreign student and others.
DHS officials have also detained Indian national Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher, and Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian on an expired student visa and previously arrested for her alleged participation in pro-Hamas activity at Columbia University. The administration has also successfully deported Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese national working as an assistant professor at Brown University, after immigration officials allegedly discovered adoring photographs of deceased Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah and other pro-terrorist images.
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