Momodou Taal, a Cornell graduate student who has been a prominent voice at pro-Palestinian protests in the US, is being told to surrender to US immigration authorities, as the Trump administration steps up efforts to deport migrants. 

Taal, a doctoral candidate in Africana Studies, is a dual citizen of The Gambia and the United Kingdom. He is one of several prominent student leaders in the US targeted by the US government for deportation for leading pro-Palestinian protests in U.S. universities. 

In an email sent to Taal’s lawyers, the US Justice Department ordered Taal to surrender to appear in-person at the (Homeland Security Investigations) Office in Syracuse [New York], reports CNN. 

A Notice to Appear is one of the first steps in the formal process of deportation. The email did not specify a deadline for Taal to surrender.

“He lives in constant fear that he may be arrested by immigration officials or police as a result of his speech,” Taal’s lawyers said in a lawsuit filed last weekend, asking a federal judge in New York to strike down two executive orders targeting universities and “foreign 

national” protesters.

Taal’s efforts to fight potential deportation come only two weeks after Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestinian protest leader Mahmoud Khalil was detained by US immigration authorities. 

Taal is one of the pro-Palestinian activists flagged for suggested deportation by Betar US, a self-described Zionist advocacy group and the only Jewish organisation classified as an extremist group by the Anti-Defamation League, according to CNN.