A Cornell University graduate student has filed suit against the Trump administration’s efforts to deport pro-Palestinian campus protesters, saying that the push represents an illegal infringement on protected speech.

Momodou Taal is a Gambian-British national who has been a protest leader at the upstate New York university. Cornell briefly suspended him in both April 2024 and September 2024, following protests on its campus that administrators said violated university rules.

Taal has also been the target of advocacy by pro-Israel groups that have sought to identify students who might be eligible for deportation under US President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting those who endorse terrorism or antisemitism on college campuses.

According to a fact sheet about the order, it aims to “combat the explosion of anti-Semitism on our campuses and in our streets since October 7, 2023,” the date that Palestinian terror group Hamas invaded southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, abducting hundreds of hostages, and triggering the ensuing war in the Gaza Strip.

Critics say the measure is aimed more broadly at pro-Palestinian campus protesters, with rights groups and legal scholars saying it would violate constitutional free speech rights and would likely draw legal challenges.

The lawsuit, filed Friday on behalf of Taal and two other Cornell affiliates by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, cites targeting by a pro-Israel group, Betar US, as a........

© The Times of Israel