A British-Gambian student at New York's Cornell University whose visa was revoked over his involvement in last year's pro-Palestinian protests chose to self-deport, an official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed Tuesday.

Momodou Taal, 31, announced Monday he had left the United States voluntarily days after a judge declined to temporarily block the government from taking steps to deport him.

"Given what we have seen across the United States, I have lost faith that a favourable ruling from the courts would guarantee my personal safety and ability to express my beliefs. I have lost faith I could walk the streets without being abducted," Taal wrote on social media . "Weighing up these options, I took the decision to leave on my own terms."

In a statement to CBS News Tuesday evening, a senior DHS official claimed, without providing evidence, that Taal was a "terrorist sympathizer."

"It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America," the official said. "When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country. We are pleased to confirm that this Cornell University terrorist sympathizer heeded Secretary Noem's advice to self-deport."

On March 15, Taal filed a federal lawsuit with a fellow Cornell professor and a second PhD student challenging President Trump's executive orders which they argued threatened free speech.

In a follow-up court filing, Taal alleged that DHS agents had visited his home on March 19 in an effort to detain him, and then revoked his visa on March 21.

"When we asked the Court to enjoin the administration from detaining Mr. Taal as the case progresses, the administration responded by ordering him to surrender to ICE," Taal's attorney, Eric Lee, said in a statement earlier this month. "This does not happen in a democracy. We are outraged, and every American should be too. We urge the population to defend the right to freedom of speech against the urgent threat of dictatorship by exercising that right actively and vigorously."

Taal is the latest student to be targeted by the Trump administration in its crackdown on international students who took part in last year's pro-Palestinian protests amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and green-card holder, was arrested by DHS agents in New York City in early March while with his pregnant wife. Khalil, an Algerian citizen, has been held at a detention facility in Louisiana since while his case plays out.

Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia University doctoral student and Indian national, also chose to self-deport to Canada after her visa was revoked.

"That I would be detained indefinitely," Srinivasan told CBS News in an interview on why she left. "That was really my greatest fear, and with little legal recourse to fight anything that they throw at me."

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish graduate student at Boston's Tufts University, was detained last week and sent to Louisiana as well. Security video showed her being grabbed off the street by DHS agents while on her way to a Ramadan iftar dinner.