The Trump administration moved early Friday to detain Cornell University international students who led the protest on the Ithaca campus, New York.
Lawyers for Momodou Taal, a doctoral student at Africana Studies, said in court documents in an email early Friday morning that U.S. immigration and customs enforcement agencies were notified by email that Taal was seeking surrender.
Last year, Tar was one of a group of pro-Palestinian activists who closed their career fairs on the Cornell campus, featuring arms makers. As a result, the university ordered him to study remotely in the spring semester.
Tar, great grandson of Ir Doda Kairaba Javara, the first president of the Gambia, is a citizen of both the Gambia and the UK. According to court documents, Tar on the visa said that some feared being deported as his name had spread as a potential ice target in social media and media reports.
The move to detain Taal comes as the Trump administration seeks to deport other pro-Palestinian students and academics.
About two weeks ago, Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent Palestinian resident who recently earned his master's degree from Columbia University, was taken into custody in New York. The government on Monday detained Badal Khan Suri, an Indian citizen who studied and taught at Georgetown University, claiming he had violated the terms of the academic visa. Other students are also being targeted.
ICE did not immediately return a request for comment.
Last weekend, Taal filed a preemptive lawsuit to block possible actions against him. A hearing was scheduled for Tar's lawyer as Mr. Eric T. Lee on Tuesday in Syracuse, New York, but his client argued that he had exercised his right to free speech and had no justification for his deportation.
The lawsuit also challenged the legality of Trump's executive order to “fight anti-Semitism,” and directed the deportation of immigrants who could view “anti-Semitism or support as support for terrorism.”
Earlier this week, law enforcement agents were seen near Tar's apartment building on Cornell's campus. According to an affidavit filed in the Upstate District of New York, the company was seen earlier this week.
“This doesn't happen in democracy. We're furious and all Americans should be,” Lee said in a statement.
Tar's lawyers are asking the court to hold off the outcome of the case and delay his surrender to the ice. On Thursday, hundreds of Cornell students and supporters held a rally to support Mr. Tar. Tar is also the host of a podcast called “The Malcolm Effect.”
