A senior official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security claimed, without evidence, that the student was a "terrorist sympathizer."

Cornell University doctoral candidate Momodou Taal has chosen to leave the US after a judge declined to immediately block his deportation.

Momodou Taal, an Ivy League student with dual citizenship in the United Kingdom and Gambia, announced on X that he had chosen to leave the U.S.

Momodou Taal, a Cornell University graduate student who sued the Trump administration and was threatened with deportation, has voluntarily left the country, he announced Monday on the social media site X. “Today I took the decision to leave the U.S. free and with my head held high,” Taal said in a statement posted on X.

Momodou Taal praised the "student intifada," derided concerns for the safety of Zionist students and called on his supporters to "escalate for Palestine."

Taal is one of hundreds of international students facing imprisonment and deportation for exercising their First Amendment rights.

The government says it revoked his student visa in March because of his involvement in “disruptive protests,” as well as for disregarding university policies and creating a hostile environment for Jewish students.