October 2, 2026
Palestinian Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, faces deportation from the United States under a Cold War-era law, after a stay of more than three decades.
In a ruling issued late Tuesday, Chicago Immigration Court Judge Jaime Salinardi authorized the US government to deport Sarsour, who holds permanent residency and heads the largest mosque in Wisconsin. The judge upheld the government’s argument that Sarsour poses a security and foreign policy threat under the Immigration and Nationality Act, while rejecting its claim that he provided false information when applying for a green card. For its part, the Department of Homeland Security welcomed the ruling, noting that the judge “upheld multiple grounds for deportation.”
On the other hand, Sarsour described the decision as “deeply disappointing,” confirming in a statement that his legal team would appeal the ruling, and said: “I will not stop defending what is right and justice in Palestine.” According to the report, the deportation decision cannot be implemented before all available legal means are exhausted, while Sarsour warns that his life will be at risk if he is returned to the West Bank, where he grew up.
It is noteworthy that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Sarsour in late March, before releasing him in mid-June after a federal judge deemed that his freedom of expression claim might make his detention illegal. His legal team explained that he suffers from type 2 diabetes, and he lost more than 13 kilograms during his detention.
Sarsour does not have any criminal record in the United States, but the American authorities base their view of him as a threat on a conviction issued against him before an Israeli military court when he was a boy and before he moved to America, which is information that Sarsour’s family and lawyers confirm that the American authorities have been aware of for decades. While the US administration states that the conviction relates to throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli soldiers, Sarsour denies these acts, stressing that he was tortured and forced to extract confessions.
The Islamic Society of Milwaukee and its legal team confirm that Sarsour is being targeted because of his Palestinian Muslim origins and his defense of Palestinian rights. This case comes in the context of the approach taken by the administration of US President Donald Trump towards foreigners participating in pro-Palestinian movements, which includes efforts to deport demonstrators, threatening to freeze funding for universities that witnessed protests, examining immigrants’ accounts on social media, and imposing sanctions on critics of Israel.
At a time when Trump accuses pro-Palestinian voices of anti-Semitism and supporting extremist groups, groups supporting Palestinian rights, including Jewish groups, stress that criticizing the Israeli attacks on Gaza and control of the Palestinian territories does not fall under anti-Semitism, and that defending Palestinian rights should not be linked to supporting extremism.
