Facing Deportation, Milwaukee Mosque Leader Salah Sarsour Vows to Keep Speaking Out

By Faiz Sajjad

After spending 81 days in an immigration detention center this spring, Palestinian Salah Sarsour is facing the possibility of being forced out of the country where he has lived for more than three decades. But the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee says a judge’s recent ruling that he can be deported has not changed the work he will continue to do as a Palestinian activist.

“I went through it day by day,” Sarsour said in an interview with Media Milwaukee last week, recalling his time in detention. Now back in Milwaukee with his family, he described the conditions he faced in detention, his allegations of mistreatment decades earlier by Israeli authorities and the support he has received from the youth.

Immigration Judge Jayme Salinardi found Sarsour removable on foreign–policy grounds in a decision issued on Sept. 29 and announced the next day. His attorneys said they intend to appeal and seek protection from removal. The ruling did not immediately result in deportation for Sarsour, and his case remains pending.

Sarsour was arrested March 30 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and later held at the Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana. U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon ordered his release June 18, finding that Sarsour had pointed out a significant First Amendment retaliation claim concerning his detention. That federal ruling did not decide the separate deportation proceedings.

Sarsour said the arrest initially left him confused. After immigration officials explained the case while he was being processed in Chicago, he said he became convinced he was targeted for speaking publicly in support of Palestinians. The immigration judge did not find that his activism was the reason for the deportation case.

The Department of Homeland Security has given a sharply different view. In an April 2 press release, the department accused Sarsour of having a terrorism-related history and misrepresenting information in immigration paperwork. Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis alleged that he “lied on his green card application to gain legal status in the U.S.”

However, Salinardi rejected the government’s allegation that Sarsour lied on his green-card application, according to The Associated Press. The judge did accept a foreign-policy argument tied to a memorandum of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. DHS maintained that Sarsour’s decades-old Israeli military-court convictions make him a national security concern.

The government has alleged that Sarsour was convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli military personnel. His lawyers dispute that allegation, saying he was convicted in a stone-throwing case and was never convicted of the Molotov cocktail offense. The Associated Press reported that Sarsour has no criminal record in the United States.

During the interview, Sarsour said Israeli security officials tortured him when he was a teenager and pressured him to sign documents written in Hebrew that he could not understand. He also described being taken to a hospital after an injury to his chest. His former attorney, Jawad Bolous, testified about coercion and torture allegations during the immigration proceedings, according to the Associated Press.

Sarsour said he preferred not to discuss every detail of the ongoing case because his attorneys were handling those arguments. But he spoke in depth about what his detention in Indiana felt like.

“I was not aware that any such facility exists here in the States,” he said. He described the building as cold and dirty and alleged problems with food, health care, verbal treatment, and religious accommodations.

Religion was one of his particular concerns. Sarsour said he struggled to obtain access to his Quran and to arrange Friday congregational prayers for fellow Muslim detainees. He recalled seeing Christian detainees gather for weekly worship and said he pushed for comparable opportunities for Muslims.

He also said he was unable to celebrate Eid, a significant Muslim holiday, in the way he wanted while detained. The restrictions made the experience especially difficult for someone whose work in Milwaukee includes leading a faith community, he said.

The 81 days separated Sarsour from six adult children and a growing number of grandchildren.

He said his children pursued their education in Wisconsin, specifically at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and spoke proudly of their professional lives. He said that the family had just welcomed its 10th grandchild.

“I never thought I would end up in prison, to be honest with you,” Sarsour said. He described himself as a businessman, a father, and an elected community leader who had spent years building relationships among people of different faiths.

Sarsour said his experience also changed how he viewed immigration enforcement beyond his own case. He recalled meeting many Latino detainees at the Indiana jail and watching people leave, and others arrive. He said the experience convinced him that the response to immigration enforcement should involve different communities working together.

Rather than backing away from Palestinian activism, Sarsour said he intends to continue speaking about Palestine as well as the events happening in Sudan and Kashmir. He believes immigration enforcement against activists is meant to divert the activists’ time and energy from the causes. DHS has made its case a matter of national security and foreign policy.

The support of younger organizers has been especially meaningful to him. Asked about an Oct.21 appearance planned with Students for Justice in Palestine at UWM, Sarsour praised college students who protested his detention and continued discussing the conflict in Gaza.

“I am so proud of them,” he said. “I will do whatever it takes to always support them and to continue this great work.”

His legal fight is far from over. Attorney Patrick Taurel has said Sarsour’s team plans to seek protection under the Convention Against Torture, arguing that he would face danger if removed.

Another immigration judge is expected to oversee further proceedings following Salinardi’s retirement.

For Sarsour, the possibility of deportation has not changed the message he wants to deliver. At the end of the interview with Media Milwaukee, he called on U.S. officials to send humanitarian supplies, including food, medicine, and school supplies, to people in Gaza rather than weapons to Israel, and said he intends to keep advocating for those causes while fighting to stay in Milwaukee.