Cornell student activist asked to surrender to ICE

The Department of Justice on Friday asked a Cornell University student who is suing the Trump administration after helping lead campus protests last year to surrender to immigration authorities, according to a new court filing.

The Department of Justice on Friday asked a Cornell University student who is suing the Trump administration after helping lead campus protests last year to surrender to immigration authorities, according to a new court filing.

Lawyers for Momodou Taal, a Ph.D. student who is a U.S. visa holder and a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Gambia, said in court documents that he received an email from a Department of Justice lawyer informing him for the first time that the government intended to serve him with a notice to appear — which initiates the deportation process — and an invitation to surrender to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The email did not specify when the Justice Department expects Taal to surrender to immigration authorities.

Eric Lee, one of Taal’s attorneys, told NBC News on Saturday that in the days before the email was sent, unidentified authorities showed up outside Taal’s student apartment building and began asking other residents about him. The building’s staff then asked the authorities to leave, Lee said.

"It is not yet clear what grounds for removal the government alleges exist here," Lee said in his court filing on Friday, adding that Taal has been living in the U.S. and has been admitted into the country multiple times.