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Cornell rejects first appeal from international student suspended after pro-Palestinian protest [1]
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Date: 2024-09-27 16:00:00+00:00
ITHACA, N.Y. — Droves of Cornell University students, professors and supporters nationwide have flocked to the defense of an international graduate student potentially facing imminent deportation after he was temporarily suspended Monday for participating in a pro-Palestinian protest on Sept. 18.
Momodou Taal, who is from the United Kingdom, was alerted of his temporary academic suspension Monday after speaking with Cornell’s Senior Immigration Advisor Hersh Sisodia. According to Taal in an interview Tuesday, Sisodia explained the university’s obligation to “cancel” his F-1 student visa in light of the suspension.
Taal submitted the first of two possible appeals to Cornell’s administration Wednesday. A day later, Taal received word his appeal was rejected by Vice President of Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi.
Per Cornell’s appeal process, Taal has until Friday at 5 p.m. to submit a final appeal to interim Provost John Siciliano for final review.
Taal’s immigration lawyer Eric Lee posted a statement on his X, formerly Twitter, account Thursday, criticizing Cornell Vice President of University Relations Joel Malina’s statement earlier this week, in which Malina said universities “do not have deportation powers.”
Lee told The Ithaca Voice in an interview Thursday that “the university’s attempts to claim its hands are tied here is illegitimate.”
“Of course they don’t have the power to deport. No one claimed that. But it is 100% in their power to pursue this bogus effort [to suspend Taal] on the abuse of free speech activity,” Lee said.
Per regulations set by the Department of Homeland Security, Cornell is “under no obligation to report changes in enrollment immediately,” Lee said. The university must report changes in a 21-day window after it reaches a final decision regarding Taal’s suspension.
Lee said he has had limited communication with Cornell leaders, though they told him they “do not plan to inform authorities until the administrative process is exhausted.”
Lee said he has asked for clarification but has not heard back since the initial conversation.
“Our reading of that is, and we hope they remain faithful to this, is that they will provide him with a panel hearing and the right to present evidence on his behalf before they make the suspension permanent, or rather, before they change his enrollment status,” Lee said.
Lee said Cornell officials can choose when to change Taal’s enrollment status, which would trigger the obligation to inform authorities within 21 days.
In Lee’s official statement, he wrote that administrators told Taal in a meeting Monday that he must leave the country “as soon as this weekend,” though that doesn’t align with federal immigration regulations.
“Cornell’s threats to report Mr. Taal would have deprived him of the right to a hearing and opportunity to respond to the allegations against him,” Lee wrote. “This violates basic principles of due process and the presumption of innocence, to which all students, including foreign nationals, are entitled.”
Numerous activist organizations, some affiliated with Cornell and others not, have released statements condemning the university for unfairly targeting Taal, who is Black and a practicing Muslim.
Like Lee, organizations like the Cornell chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Black Student Union cited the lack of a hearing or fair trial that all Cornell students, Taal included, are entitled to in the university’s code of conduct.
As of Wednesday, 4,500 people from within the Cornell community and nationally have signed a petition demanding Taal be reinstated.
Word of Taal’s temporary suspension spread fast, mainly through various social media platforms including X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram, where organizations, unions and individuals posted their outraged reactions.
Nearly 150 students and supporters attended a rally outside the university’s administrative building Day Hall on Wednesday, which was organized by Cornell’s umbrella advocacy group, the Coalition for Mutual Liberation (CML).
CML organized the Sept. 18 protest, where over 100 protesters shut down a career fair on Cornell’s campus to demand the university cut financial and professional ties with corporate weapons manufacturers supplying Israel in its ongoing war in the Gaza strip after pushing past university police officers.
Taal has been involved in on-campus organizing efforts through CML since the war in the Gaza strip broke out Oct. 7, 2023.
In April, Taal was among the students who were suspended for participating in the pro-Palestinian encampment CML organized and maintained for nearly two weeks on Cornell’s Arts Quad.
Cornell Graduate Workers’ Union (CGSU-UE) is among the organizations demanding his reinstatement, as Taal is a graduate student worker at the university and a union member.
The union has issued a demand to bargain over the effects of Taal’s suspension, according to a statement it released Tuesday evening.
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[1] Url:
https://ithacavoice.org/2024/09/cornell-rejects-first-appeal-from-international-student-suspended-after-pro-palestinian-protest/
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