Deportation Trial for Milwaukee Muslim Leader Wraps Up

Salah Sarsour (center) surrounded by friends and supporters. Photo taken June 19, 2026 by Graham Kilmer.

After a final hearing Monday, a judge is expected to issue a ruling in the deportation proceedings against Milwaukee Muslim leader Salah Sarsour in the coming weeks.

Sarsour has lived in the U.S. for 32 years and is the president of the largest mosque in Wisconsin, the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. He was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on March 30. The federal government is attempting to deport Sarsour on the grounds that he is a threat to national security, pointing to Israeli Military Court cases from more than 30 years ago

The government has also brought charges in the deportation case alleging he lied on an immigration document and falsely claimed U.S. citizenship for personal benefit. During a media briefing after the hearing, Sarsour’s attorney, Patrick Taurel, said he believes the federal government failed to prove either charge. And in any case, the governments’ charges against Sarsour are pretextual, and he is actually being targeted because of his strong advocacy for the Palestinian people.

Since the Trump administration took office in 2025, the federal government has used a statute that allows the Secretary of State to mark someone for deportation by determining their presence in the country is a threat to U.S. foreign policy. Under that statute, there must be a “compelling foreign policy interest” if the government is targeting someone merely for otherwise protected speech, Taurel said.

“And they’ve invoked that clause in Salah’s case,” Taurel said. “So we know they are going after him because of his lawful speech.”

Sarsour was released from federal custody in June after a federal judge found evidence he was likely targeted for protected speech. Other pro-Palestinian activists and advocates have been similarly targeted by the Trump administration.

“What’s at stake here is not just whether this good man can stay here, but whether people can speak freely in this country without fear of unlawful retribution,” Taurel said.

Before coming to the U.S., Sarsour lived under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank. As a teenager, he was arrested and tortured by Israeli security forces seeking to coerce a confession, according to his defense attorney Jawad Boulos, who represented Sarsour in his case before an Israeli military tribunal. Sarsour testified that he had been tortured so badly that Israeli security forces sought medical attention on his behalf, according to Taurel. The torture produced the confession to throwing stones.

Boulos was called as a witness by Sarsour’s defense. The government did not call any witnesses in its case for removal, Taurel said. Boulos also previously represented Sarsour in another Israel case where he was charged with procuring a weapon for someone alleged to be a Hamas operative. The individual was not affiliated with Hamas and Sarsour took a plea deal in the case that amounted to time served, Taurel said, adding that he likely would have received a harsher sentence if Israeli authorities actually believed he had procured a weapon for someone linked to Hamas.

“They would have thrown the book at him in a way that they simply did not,” Taurel said.

As Sarsour fights his deportation in immigration court, he is also arguing he was unlawfully arrested and detained in a separate federal court in the Southern District of Indiana. After his arrest in March, federal authorities brought him to Indiana and detained him in the Clay County Jail. He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court seeking to compel the federal government to prove it was legally imprisoning him.

U.S. District Judge James Hanlon ordered his release after hearing evidence he was likely arrested and detained because of lawful speech. When Sarsour, a diabetic, was released from federal custody in June, he had lost 35 pounds.

In immigration court, Judge Jayme Salinardi is expected to issue a ruling on the removal order by the end of the month. Even if Sarsour is found eligible for removal, that won’t be the end of his case. Next, the court will consider whether Sarsour is eligible for asylum.

His attorney said immigration judges face intense pressure under the Trump administration, noting that two judges were fired after ruling against the government in similar deportation cases against pro-Palestinian advocates Rumeysa Ozturk and Mohsen Mahdawi.

“And so the neutrality of the immigration courts is —  I wouldn’t just say under threat — it has been severely undermined,” Taurel said. “But I hope that this judge takes a fair look at the evidence, and and if he does, I think he’s going to find that the law is not removable on the charges that the government has filed.”