‘This shouldn’t happen in a democracy’: Trump tries to arrest academic suing administration over antisemitism executive order
Immigration agents are allegedly trying to arrest and deport a Cornell PhD student who filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s executive orders cracking down on pro-Palestinian protesters.
Momodou Taal, a citizen of the UK and The Gambia, is one of three academics who sued the Trump administration over the weekend, alleging a pair of executive orders unconstitutionally threaten immigrants who protest the administration and its allies with deportation.
Early Friday morning, with hearings scheduled in the constitutional case next week, Taal got an email from a Justice Department lawyer citing the lawsuit, directing him to “surrender” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to court documents.
Taal’s attorneys told The Independent they have gotten no document describing why Taal could be facing removal, and that if his removal is based on the lawsuit itself, it’s unprecedented in American history for a foreign student to be deported for challenging the constitutionality of presidential actions. They said they heard from the university that as of this morning, Taal’s visa had not been revoked.
“That is something which should cause deep concern and outrage among everybody who wants to defend the most democratic principles in the Bill of Rights and to anyone who wants to prevent Donald Trump from accomplishing his goal of establishing a dictatorship in this country,” said attorney Eric Lee.
“This type of thing should not happen in a democracy,” he added.
Taal’s suit, filed with two other Cornell academics, challenges a pair of Trump executive orders signed in January.
The White House directives call for agencies to investigate and potentially remove non-citizens in the U.S. who “bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles” and “advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.”
The president and his allies frequently describe all pro-Palestinian protests that took place across 2023 and 2024 as synonymous with activities aiding Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group. Trump vowed in a January statement to deport what he called “all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests.”
The federal complaint alleges that the executive orders violate First Amendment Protections for free speech and Fifth Amendment guarantees of due process based on a “vague, subjective, and overbroad standards that grant unfettered discretion to government officials.”
It points to comments from Trump officials like Justice Department civil rights lawyer Leo Terrell, who said in February the administration would put an end to “these disorderly demonstrations, supporting Hamas and trying to intimidate Jews” and “put these people in jail — not for 24 hours, but for years.”
As Taal’s complaint worked its way through the courts, with a planned hearing in the case March 25, law enforcement agents and vehicles appeared outside Taal’s home near Cornell’s campus on Wednesday, in what his attorneys believe was a prelude to arrest.
“Their response to the filing of the suit was to go to his house and threaten to arrest him,” Lee said.
That prompted the attorneys to ask a New York federal court for an emergency order barring Taal from being detained or deported while the constitutional case was ongoing.
