[News] He Sued Trump Over Free Speech. Then ICE Demanded He Turn Himself In.

[Anti-Imperialist News]

theintercept.com
<https://theintercept.com/2025/03/21/trump-free-speech-lawsuit-ice-momodou-taal/>
He Sued Trump Over Free Speech. Then ICE Demanded He Turn Himself In.
Jonah Valdez, Jessica Washington
March 21, 2025
------------------------------

On Friday, federal officials ordered prominent activist and Cornell
University graduate student Momodou Taal to surrender to U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement custody, Taal’s attorneys confirmed to The
Intercept.

Taal, a dual Gambian and British citizen in the U.S. on a student visa, is
currently suing the Trump administration to block its targeting of
international students protesting in support of Palestinian rights.

Along with another Cornell graduate student and professor, Taal sued the
Trump administration for violating their First Amendment rights, arguing
that the targeted deportations of pro-Palestinian activists has a chilling
effect on free speech. The suit challenged two of President Donald Trump’s
executive orders used to crack down on people advocating for Palestine.

“Nothing has changed except for the fact that we have filed this lawsuit.”

Taal’s lawyers are now arguing that the Trump administration’s request for
Taal to turn himself in to ICE is a retaliation for his lawsuit and for his
pro-Palestinian beliefs.

Eric Lee, an attorney representing Taal in the lawsuit called the
government’s demand for Taal to turn himself in “extremely unusual” and
“very concerning.”

“These types of things do not happen in a democracy where people have the
right to seek redress of grievances of the government,” Lee said.

Chris Godshall-Bennett, the legal director of the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee who is also part of Taal’s team on the
lawsuit, called the move “outrageous.”

“There is no basis for his removal,” said Godshall-Bennett. “Nothing has
changed except for the fact that we have filed this lawsuit — so it really
is just an outrageous situation that should be treated as such.”
*Midnight Email*

In a midnight email sent to Taal’s attorneys, a lawyer with the Department
of Justice relayed a request from ICE demanding Taal’s detention, inviting
Taal “to surrender to ICE custody” at the agency’s Homeland Security
Investigations office in Syracuse, New York, according to the attorneys and
court filings, which include a copy of the email
<https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nynd.147216/gov.uscourts.nynd.147216.25.2.pdf>
.

Attorneys representing Taal argue that the order only further strengthens
their claims that the Trump administration is targeting activists for
speaking out.

The government’s demand constituted “an unlawful attempt” to use
deportation “in retribution” for the lawsuit against the Trump
administration, according to an emergency letter sent to the court on
Friday by Taal’s lawyers. (Neither ICE nor the Department of Justice
immediately responded to requests for comment.)
We’re independent of corporate interests — and powered by members. Join us.

Become a member
<https://join.theintercept.com/donate/now/?referrer_post_id=488656&referrer_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F2025%2F03%2F21%2Ftrump-free-speech-lawsuit-ice-momodou-taal%2F&source=web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement>

Federal District Court Judge Elizabeth Coombe responded to the emergency
letter by ordering the government to address by Saturday whether its
attempts to detain Taal are based on the very Trump executive orders at the
center of his lawsuit.

Taal’s lawyers also noted in their emergency letter that the Trump
administration’s demands were unprecedented.

They wrote, “The undersigned are not aware of any other instance in which
the government has attempted to initiate service of an NTA” — a notice to
appear — “through the Department of Justice in response to the noncitizen
filing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of presidential action.”
*ICE’s Order*

Before receiving the order to turn himself over, Taal expressed concerns
that he was being watched, claims his attorneys corroborated in their
recent filings. According to eyewitness testimonies submitted in the court
filings on Wednesday, a law enforcement vehicle — the driver flashed a
badge to the witnesses — was parked outside of Taal’s home in Ithaca, New
York, on Wednesday. They were not able to identify what agency the official
was from.

Taal’s attorneys filed a temporary restraining order the same day as the
witness testimonies asking the courts to prevent the government from
detaining or deporting their client before his scheduled March 25 hearing.
Dozens of protesters gathered at Cornell
<https://x.com/MomodouTaal/status/1902766270879056040> on Thursday in
support of Taal, chanting “Hands off Momodou.”


Just after midnight on Thursday, government lawyers responded by sending an
email to Taal’s attorneys requesting that he turn himself to ICE agents.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has asked us to convey to
you the following,” Ethan Kanter, an attorney with the Department of
Justice wrote in an email with the subject line “Re: Momodou Taal et al v.
Trump, 25-cv-335 (NDNY).” “ICE invites Mr. Taal and his counsel to appear
in-person at the HSI Office in Syracuse at a mutually agreeable time for
personal service of the NTA and for Mr. Taal to surrender to ICE custody.
Accordingly, if you are interested in proposing such a date and time, we
will promptly forward it to ICE for consideration.”

Notices to appear are often the first step in the process of deporting
people from the country. The government did not set a deadline for Taal and
his attorneys to schedule the surrender.

The government’s email did not mention on what grounds it wanted to detain
Taal. A report from the right-wing website Washington Free Beacon claimed
that the government had revoked Taal’s student visa, citing an unnamed
State Department official. Taal’s attorneys, however, disputed the report
and said they had not received a notice of revocation. (The State
Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
*Growing Crackdown*

The government’s mounting pressure against Taal comes several weeks after
the Trump administration attempted to deport recent Columbia University
graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil
<https://theintercept.com/2025/03/11/mahmoud-khalil-columbia-ice-louisiana/>
over his participation in anti-genocide protests last spring.

The arrest sparked widespread condemnation over Trump’s brazen attack on
free speech rights and the movement for Palestinian liberation.

Attorneys continue to fight for Khalil’s release
<https://theintercept.com/2025/03/13/mahmoud-khalil-legal-free-speech-deport/>,
in part, to be with his wife, Noor Abdalla, who is expected to give birth
in April. Earlier this week, a judge allowed for Khalil’s case to be
transferred to New Jersey, thwarting the government’s attempts
<https://theintercept.com/2025/03/14/mahmoud-khalil-ravi-ragbir-ice-deport/>
to move the case to Louisiana, though Khalil remains detained in the state.

ICE has said it also arrested another former Columbia student, Leqaa
Kordia, a Palestinian who took part in pro-Palestinian protests and had
overstayed her student visa, as well as a Georgetown University graduate
student, Badar Khan Suri, who was detained outside his Arlington, Virginia,
home on Monday, and accused
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/profile/who-badar-khan-suri-indian-scholar-set-deportation-us>
by the government of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism
on social media.”

As in Khalil’s case, Taal had been punished by Cornell for a pro-Palestine
protest. When Taal was suspended last year, the school said it planned to
terminate
<https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2024/09/pro-palestinian-international-student-says-he-faces-deportation-after-second-suspension>
his student visa, but reversed
<https://www.campusreform.org/article/cornell-allows-pro-palestine-activist-continue-studies-anti-israel-protests-restoring-visa-amid-controversy/26551>
the decision after pushback from students and faculty.

Since Trump again took office, both activists have become the target of
far-right pro-Israel groups, including one that sent
<https://freebeacon.com/campus/trump-pledged-to-deport-pro-hamas-student-visa-holders-who-are-they/>
their names to the administration for deportation.

“It’s time that we exercise our rights to access the court to stop what’s
happening in this country,” said Lee, Taal’s attorney. “Trump is attempting
to establish a dictatorship and if we can’t fight that in the courts, what
can we do?”
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20250321/d470a88e/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: GettyImages-2200143503-e1742593080448.webp
Type: image/webp
Size: 169344 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20250321/d470a88e/attachment-0001.webp>