US judge says Milwaukee mosque leader Salah Sarsour can be deported

An immigration judge in the United States has ruled that Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian-born mosque leader who has lived in the country for three decades, can be deported on the ground that he is a foreign policy threat. The judge, however, rejected the government’s separate allegation that Sarsour lied on his green card application.

Sarsour was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Milwaukee in March. In June, US District Judge James Patrick Hanlon ordered his release, saying he had raised a “substantial” claim that the Trump administration was targeting him for speaking out against Israel and advocating for Palestinian rights.

Sarsour is president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the largest mosque in Wisconsin, and has lived in the US since 1993. The government has argued that his decades-old terrorism convictions in Israel make him a threat to US national security. Immigration Judge Jayme Salinardi agreed on that point but threw out the claim that he had lied in his immigration paperwork.

Born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Sarsour was imprisoned in Israel in 1988 after confessing to throwing a Molotov cocktail and stones at Israeli military personnel. In 1995, he was convicted of attempting to hold weapons and ammunition. Sarsour denies committing those crimes. His lawyers say he was tortured and coerced into confessing in both cases. Jawad Boulos, who represented him in Israel, testified in August that Sarsour was coerced into confessing and was not convicted of any charge linking him to a terrorist organisation.

His brother, Mohammad Sarsour, testified in July that when Sarsour appeared in an Israeli courtroom, he looked dirty, was in poor physical condition, had lost significant weight and complained of pain. Boulos also said Sarsour was tortured while in the custody of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency. The Department of Homeland Security questioned Boulos on the torture claims and asked how he could know they were true.

Sarsour has no criminal record in the US. His lawyers say the US government has known about his convictions in Israel since he arrived and that he never hid that information from immigration authorities. His current legal team has also asked why US authorities waited until this year to detain him. According to court documents, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a rare memo in June 2025 saying Sarsour could be deported on the same grounds as Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, both advocates for Palestinian rights whom the Trump administration has tried to expel.

“Being sent back to the West Bank, means the end of my life,” Sarsour told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday. One of his lawyers, Patrick Taurel, said Sarsour would fight the deportation and would likely have to show that he would face torture by Israel if he were removed. “It’s a very high bar, although I think we can meet it in this case, given what Salah has already experienced, and given the government of Israel’s treatment of people similarly situated to him,” Taurel said.

Experts on forced confessions and on the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons also testified for Sarsour. Israeli military courts have faced repeated scrutiny over allegations of limited due process and the high conviction rate of Palestinians. Israel rejects those claims.

In June, Judge Hanlon said government lawyers had not explained why Sarsour was suddenly considered a threat after decades of legal residency. The Trump administration has appealed his decision to release Sarsour from ICE detention. Sarsour, who has Type 2 diabetes, lost more than 30 pounds, or 14 kilograms, while in ICE custody, and his blood sugar levels were checked only once a month, his lawyers said, putting him at risk of organ failure or death. A KFF Health News and AP investigation found that hundreds of detainees in at least 33 states have filed federal lawsuits making similar allegations of medical neglect.

Sarsour is due to appear in court on Wednesday for a status conference. His case is among several in which people in the US have been arrested and threatened with deportation after speaking out in support of Palestinians since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.

With PTI Inputs

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