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Pro-Palestinian Cornell Student to Leave US after Officials Asked for Surrender

People walk on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, Feb. 2, 2024. (AP)
People walk on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, Feb. 2, 2024. (AP)
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Pro-Palestinian Cornell Student to Leave US after Officials Asked for Surrender

People walk on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, Feb. 2, 2024. (AP)
People walk on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, Feb. 2, 2024. (AP)

A Cornell University student who participated in pro-Palestinian protests and was asked to surrender by US immigration officials said on Monday he was leaving the United States, citing fear of detention and threats to his personal safety.

Momodou Taal, a doctoral candidate in Africana Studies and dual citizen of the UK and The Gambia, has participated in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel's war in Gaza following an October 2023 Hamas attack. His attorneys said last month that he was asked to turn himself in and that his student visa was being revoked.

President Donald Trump has pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters and accused them of supporting Hamas, being antisemitic and posing foreign policy hurdles.

Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the Trump administration wrongly conflates their criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights with antisemitism and support for the Hamas group.

Last year, Taal was in a group of activists who disrupted a career fair on campus that featured weapons manufacturers and the university thereafter ordered him to study remotely. He previously posted online that "colonised peoples have the right to resist by any means necessary."

Taal filed a lawsuit in mid-March to block deportations of protesters, a bid that was denied by a judge last week.

"Given what we have seen across the United States, I have lost faith that a favourable ruling from the courts would guarantee my personal safety and ability to express my beliefs," Taal said on X.

OTHER CASES

Trump's administration has attempted to crack down on pro-Palestinian voices. Rights advocates condemn the moves.

Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil was arrested in early March and is legally challenging his detention. Trump, without evidence, accused Khalil of supporting Hamas. Khalil denies links to the group that Washington considers a "foreign terrorist organization."

Badar Khan Suri, an Indian studying at Georgetown University, was detained earlier in March. Suri's lawyer denies he supported Hamas. A federal judge barred Suri's deportation.

The legal team of Yunseo Chung, a Korean American Columbia University student, said last week her lawful permanent resident status was being revoked. A judge ruled she cannot be detained for now.

A judge on Friday temporarily barred the deportation of a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University named Rumeysa Ozturk, who was taken into custody by immigration officials and who, a year ago, co-authored an opinion piece calling to "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide."

The Trump administration says it may have revoked over 300 visas.

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World

Pope Francis’s Funeral to Be Held on Saturday, Many World Leaders Expected 

The body of Pope Francis is placed in an open casket during the rite of the declaration of death in Santa Marta residence at the Vatican, April 22, 2025. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS
The body of Pope Francis is placed in an open casket during the rite of the declaration of death in Santa Marta residence at the Vatican, April 22, 2025. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS
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Pope Francis’s Funeral to Be Held on Saturday, Many World Leaders Expected 

The body of Pope Francis is placed in an open casket during the rite of the declaration of death in Santa Marta residence at the Vatican, April 22, 2025. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS
The body of Pope Francis is placed in an open casket during the rite of the declaration of death in Santa Marta residence at the Vatican, April 22, 2025. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS

Pope Francis' funeral will be held on Saturday in St. Peter's Square, Roman Catholic cardinals decided on Tuesday, setting the stage for a solemn ceremony that will draw leaders from around the world. 

Francis, 88, died unexpectedly on Monday after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest, the Vatican said, ending an often turbulent reign in which he repeatedly clashed with traditionalists and championed the poor and marginalized. 

The pontiff spent five weeks in hospital earlier this year suffering from double pneumonia. But he returned to the Vatican almost a month ago and had seemed to be recovering, appearing in St. Peter's Square on Easter Sunday. 

The Vatican on Tuesday released photographs of Francis dressed in his vestments and laid in a wooden coffin in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence, where he lived during his 12-year papacy. Swiss Guards stand on either side of the casket. 

His body will be taken into the adjacent St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m. (0700 GMT), in a procession led by cardinals, allowing the faithful to pay their last respects to the first Latin American pope. 

His funeral service will be held in St. Peter's Square, in the shadow of the Basilica, on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. (0800 GMT). 

US President Donald Trump, who clashed repeatedly with the pope about immigration, said he and his wife would fly to Rome for the service. 

Among other heads of state set to attend were Javier Milei, president of Francis' native Argentina, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to a source in his office. 

ANCIENT RITUALS 

In a break from tradition, Francis confirmed in his final testament released on Monday that he wished to be buried in Rome's Basilica of Saint Mary Major and not St. Peter's, where many of his predecessors were laid to rest. 

Francis's sudden death has set in motion ancient rituals, as the 1.4-billion-member Church started the transition from one pope to another, including the breaking of the pope's "Fisherman's Ring" and lead seal, used in his lifetime to seal documents, so they cannot be used by anyone else. 

All cardinals in Rome were summoned to a meeting on Tuesday to decide on the sequencing of events in the coming days and review the day-to-day running of the Church in the period before a new pope is elected. 

A conclave to choose a new pope normally takes place 15 to 20 days after the death of a pontiff, meaning it should not start before May 6. 

Some 135 cardinals are eligible to participate in the secretive ballot, which can stretch over days before white smoke pouring from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel tells the world that a new pope has been picked. 

At present there is no clear frontrunner to succeed Francis. 

PROGRESSIVE 

Pope Francis inherited a Church in disarray and worked hard to overhaul the Vatican's central administration, root out corruption and, after a slow start, confront the scourge of child abuse within the ranks of the priesthood. 

He often clashed with conservatives, nostalgic for a traditional past, who saw Francis as overly liberal and too accommodating to minority groups. 

Francis appointed nearly 80% of the cardinal electors scattered across the world who will choose the next pope, increasing, but not guaranteeing, the possibility that his successor will continue his progressive policies. 

Many of the cardinals are little known outside their own countries and they will have a chance to get to know one another at meetings known as General Congregations that take place in the days before a conclave starts and where a profile of the qualities needed for the next pope will take shape. 

The Vatican said late on Monday that staff and officials within the Holy See could immediately start to pay their respects before the pope's body at the Santa Marta residence, where Francis set up home in 2013, shunning the grand, apostolic palace his predecessors had lived in.