AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s coverage of the Trump administration’s efforts to target free speech on college campuses with an update on a doctoral student at Cornell University who’s joined in pro-Palestine protests on campus and now finds himself targeted for deportation again.

Momodou Taal is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Africana Studies at Cornell University, a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the Gambia. Last year, he was suspended twice for joining a demonstration calling on Cornell to divest from Israel. He faced deportation until massive protests pressured Cornell to allow him to reenroll, thereby extending his visa.

In February, Momodou described the victory during an interview with Democracy Now!

MOMODOU TAAL: With, as you said, public pressure, support, Cornell University backed down, and I am allowed to finish my degree. However, I am still banned from campus. I’m allowed in one building on campus to work. I had to fight to be able to get library access. And I think there’s somewhat of a great irony that students who were protesting apartheid are now subject to forms of exclusion bordering on apartheid, with our movements restricted, and we’re only allowed to go to designated places on campus.

AMY GOODMAN: Since Momodou Taal spoke to Democracy Now! in February, he and two U.S. citizens filed a lawsuit to challenge two of the Trump administration’s executive orders that, quote, “combat antisemitism” on college campuses and expel foreign nationals who it claims pose national security threats.

Momodou’s lawyer says the government responded to the lawsuit by sending federal agents to monitor him. Then on Friday, the Department of Justice notified Momodou’s lawyer that the Trump administration is going to begin the process to carry out Momodou’s deportation and ICE — that’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement — ordered Momodou to surrender at their office.

Meanwhile, a hearing in the lawsuit Momodou helped file that is challenging Trump’s executive orders is set for Tuesday. That’s tomorrow.

For more, we’re joined by Momodou Taal from an undisclosed location.

Momodou, welcome back to Democracy Now! So, you’re reinstated at Cornell. You don’t lose your visa. And yet, now ICE says they’re going to deport you? What happened?

MOMODOU TAAL: Yeah. Thank you so much. Good morning. And thank you so much for having me on.

I mean, as you said, I think if we’re going to take a step back, this is what happens when the universities don’t stand by their students. And fundamentally, Cornell has placed a target on my back. Given the heavy-handed nature in which they repressed protests for pro-Palestine, they placed targets on their back, and this is the result of that now. So, given the executive orders, that, you know, were vague, broad, combating antisemitism, which made it incumbent on universities to collaborate and report on their students, given the high-profile nature of my case, I believed I was going to be a target eventually.

And then we saw what happened with Mahmoud. And I thought, “OK, what is my best bet at protection here?” And that was going to be a lawsuit challenging the legality and constitutionality of Trump’s executive orders. As we’ve seen right now, we have descended into a level of lawlessness, that me wanting my day in court to be heard, which is a right, challenging the legality of Trump’s executive orders, I’ve been met with ICE agents or federal agents coming to my property, I’ve been told to surrender to ICE, my visa is revoked — all in what I believe to be in retaliation or what I believe in is to prevent me from having my day in a federal court.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what are you planning to do?

MOMODOU TAAL: I would like to hear my — I want to be able to have my day in court tomorrow. That is the plan. We have, obviously, prepared ourselves for all eventualities. But, fundamentally, in this country, the First Amendment does not just protect citizens, but it says “persons.” And our lawsuit is essentially challenging, first and foremost, my ability to speak, but also American citizens have the right to hear speech. What we’re seeing now isn’t just a crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech, even though that cannot be divorced from that, but we’re seeing that any criticism of the state of Israel, any criticism of the United States government or Trump’s administration, you can be liable for deportation. So, if you ask me what I’m trying to do, I’m trying to challenge this, and we’re seeking a national injunction, not just to protect folks, myself, but also to protect anyone in the country who may be in a similarly situated situation.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Cornell University, because of protest, allowed you to continue as a student. Now you have expressed your concern that you’re being followed by ICE, and you’re supposed to show up at a hearing tomorrow. What is Cornell doing? Are they doing anything to protect you? I have in mind Mahmoud Khalil right now, who was taken by ICE, is now in Jena, Louisiana, at an ICE jail. He had written personally to the president of Columbia. That’s here in New York City. He had been, by the way, a negotiator for the pro-Palestine students with the university and said he was asking for protection from the university. What about Cornell?

MOMODOU TAAL: I have heard nothing from Cornell. Obviously, there have been great faculty who have been supportive in this truly difficult time. But I’ve heard — from the administration, I have heard nothing. I can’t speculate. I don’t know their level of involvement in this. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been contacted, but I don’t have any evidence for that at this moment. But I’ve heard nothing in terms of support, protection, other than some series of vague emails that go to the whole campus saying what to do if ICE comes and how they will not allow certain things to happen. But again, there’s nothing been by way of support of me.

AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this month, Cornell police detained at least 17 pro-Palestine protesters who disrupted a panel on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The lecture was called “Pathways to Peace” and featured former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who’s been accused of war crimes in a suit filed by a U.K. pro-Palestinian group for her role in a major military offensive in Gaza in 2008.

PROTESTER 1: Five hundred children! Five hundred children in 2014, you killed them! You’re a butcher!

PROTESTER 2: Wooooooooo!

PROTESTER 3: Hey, where are you taking them?

POLICE OFFICER: You want to get arrested?

PROTESTER 3: No, I’m just asking. I have the right to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you respond to the ongoing protests, Momodou Taal, and why you’ve continued to protest yourself? You’re from the Gambia. You’re a Gambian and British citizen. Why this issue? And you’re majoring in — or, you’re a graduate student in Africana studies at Cornell. Why is this issue so important to you?

MOMODOU TAAL: I appreciate the question. I’ve said it before on your show. But I think, for me, Palestine fundamentally holds up a mirror to the world and asks the question: What kind of world do we want to live in? And I think, as tough as this moment is for me personally, it pales in comparison to what the Palestinians are going through. And I think this is, for me, a generational defining moment, a generational defining issue.

And I think if the numbers of 18,000 children did not move people to action, then I don’t think this is a world that we can be a part of or be proud of or be — or want to even continue, because we have to ask ourselves: Why is it there’s a Palestine exception? What is it about the Palestinian issue that goes at the heart of this country? And what does it say? What questions does it force us to interrogate and engage with the world in this moment?

So, I think, from my fundamental — I think, fundamentally, I’m still a human being. I have an alive heart, and I cannot retire my moral conscience. So, regardless of the sacrifice I have to make or the consequence, for me, Palestine goes at the heart of the world today. And I think it’s a generational defining issue.

AMY GOODMAN: Momodou Taal, we want to thank you for being with us. We have 30 seconds. Any final words?

MOMODOU TAAL: I just want to say to people, thank you so much for the support. I know things are scary. I know things are unfortunate in this moment. But I don’t think the time is to keep quiet. I think the time is to double down, escalate, keep going and keep raising the issue of Palestine.

AMY GOODMAN: Momodou Taal, I want to thank you so much, Ph.D. student in the Department of Africana Studies at Cornell University, was almost deported last year, but because of massive protest against what was happening then, Cornell reinstated him. But now ICE is demanding he show up at hearing with his lawyer tomorrow in Syracuse. We’ll give you all the latest as we learn it.

When we come back, we get an update on the case of Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown professor who had his visa revoked and was detained by federal agents without being accused of any crime. His wife, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent. Stay with us.