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Cornell University is<\/span> reneging on its pledge to help two graduate students avoid immigration detention by threatening to cut their funding if they don\u2019t return to the United States, where the Trump administration has targeted them for possible deportation over their participation in a pro-Palestine protest.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Ivy League university had previously told Momodou Taal and Amandla Thomas-Johnson that they could finish their degrees with funding abroad, according to both Taal and Cornell\u2019s graduate student union. After the Trump administration began to pursue both students in March 2025, Taal and Thomas-Johnson fled to Cairo and planned to complete their studies there. Taal\u2019s attorney said the students are not sure if there\u2019s a deportation order against them, but Homeland Security Investigations, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement intelligence division, has launched inquiries<\/a> concerning both of them, and Taal was ordered to appear at an ICE office last year. The students believe they would likely be detained by immigration authorities upon return to the U.S.<\/p>\n Now, the school says the two students must teach on campus in Ithaca, New York, this fall or lose their funding.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEither they knew I can\u2019t come back, which is probably most likely, or they actually want me to come back and get arrested on arrival,\u201d Taal told The Intercept in an interview. \u201cBecause of my Palestine activism, I\u2019ve been treated even differently than people who are in similar circumstances.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The school has previously worked with other students experiencing visa issues to continue their studies abroad with funding, noted Taal and Ewa Nizalowska, president of the Cornell graduate student union.<\/p>\n Cornell declined to comment on Taal and Thomas-Johnson\u2019s cases, but in a written statement to The Intercept, a spokesperson called the idea that the university was targeting students for protest activity \u201cuntrue and unfounded.\u201d The spokesperson added that \u201cCornell University remains deeply committed to helping international students continue making academic progress when they encounter visa or travel-related challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n The Cornell funding is the sole source of financial support for Taal and Thomas-Johnson, they told The Intercept. Losing it would hurt their ability to pay for housing, food, healthcare, and other living expenses.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no money. \u2026 I\u2019m where I am because the cost of living is cheaper,\u201d Thomas-Johnson said. \u201cI go through day-to-day anxiety \u2014 how can I be expected to finish a Ph.D.?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf I don\u2019t get funding, I\u2019m going to be homeless,\u201d Taal said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to be able to make rent.\u201d<\/p>\n The Cornell spokesperson added that the students outside the U.S. can apply for fellowships for funding, but those opportunities for the coming semester were closed months ago, Taal said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I don\u2019t get funding, I\u2019m going to be homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cCornell knows full well that Momodou would be immediately detained and sent to one of the places where more people are dying than ever before, facing all sorts of abuse, simply for his speech,\u201d said Eric Lee, a civil rights attorney representing Taal. \u201cFor the university to claim that they\u2019re offering something fair is a level of cynicism which can only be deliberate by an institution with the experience of Cornell.\u201d<\/p>\n In March 2025, Taal, a British and Gambian dual citizen, and Thomas-Johnson, also a British citizen, fled the country amid a rash of deportation cases in which the Trump administration was targeting international student activists who had been involved in campus protests against Israel\u2019s genocide and apartheid of Palestinians. They were trying to avoid the treatment given to high-profile figures like Columbia University students Mahmoud Khalil <\/a>and Mohsen Madhawi<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Taal and Thomas-Johsnon had taken part in a September 2024 protest that shut down a Cornell job fair where weapons manufacturers Boeing and L3Harris, which supply weapons to Israel, had booths. The pair of students were suspended for the incident and banned from campus with threat of possible expulsion, which would have exposed them to deportation.<\/p>\n After Trump took office in early 2025, Taal sued the administration over its executive order targeting pro-Palestine international students, arguing it denied activists\u2019 First Amendment rights. Days later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement ordered Taal to surrender to authorities, and agents appeared at his student housing apartment. After a federal judge declined to block Taal\u2019s deportation, Taal decided to leave the U.S. on his own to avoid ICE detention facilities known for their brutal living conditions<\/a>. Thomas-Johnson followed suit, fleeing to Canada, then Switzerland, Senegal, and Ghana, before eventually joining Taal in Cairo.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Intercept\u2019s reporting later revealed that leading up to their departures from the U.S., Google had secretly handed ICE agents the students\u2019 Gmail account information<\/a> and complied with a federal subpoena demanding their bank and credit card numbers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n