“We should not be here,” said Patrick Taurel, Sarsour’s lead immigration attorney of Grossman Young & Hammond. “Mr. Sarsour should not be facing such an arduous and dehumanizing fight to remain with his family. He’s a leader of his community. He has never been charged with, let alone convicted of, a crime in the United States. ICE is seeking to deport him on the basis of his pro-Palestine speech. The other charges we’ve been fighting about in court are pretextual, trumped up, and do not withstand scrutiny. I don’t know how the immigration judge will rule, but I know that Mr. Sarsour will keep fighting, with the support of his community behind him, because keeping him here is about protecting everyone’s constitutional right to free expression.”
Salah is a father, grandfather, and national grassroots leader in advocacy for Palestinian rights, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has been a legal U.S. resident for 32 years. On March 30th of this year, he was surrounded by roughly a dozen ICE officers and taken at gunpoint as Secretary of State Marco Rubio had named Sarsour among other Palestinian activists he sought to deport due to their advocacy for Palestinian rights.
The government has sought to bolster the case for Sarsour’s removability for free speech by bringing forward tenuous allegations against Sarsour within Israeli military courts decades ago. However, a federal judge in Salah’s habeas proceedings affirmed in his order releasing him from ICE custody that the government had “been aware of the Israeli court cases against Mr. Sarsour for 25 years,” and had not addressed them in at least four USCIS decisions in 2000, 2008, 2010, and 2019 — in part because the convictions were identified as purely political since Sarsour was tortured while in the custody of Israeli military officials, who are known for extracting false confessions.
This hearing provided DHS’s cross-examination of Israeli criminal defense attorney Jawad Boulos, who represented Salah Sarsour in Israeli Military Court in 1988 and 1994 and who testified in this case about the severe torture and systemic injustice Sarsour faced, as well as closing arguments from both sides. Boulos testified that the Israeli criminal cases that the US government is now emphasizing as partial grounds for his removal included coerced confessions. He also testified that the Israeli convictions do not establish a connection between Sarsour and terrorist activity.
“Salah’s removal defense attorneys provided plentiful documentary evidence and presented compelling witness testimony to the immigration court to show that DHS has not met its burden of proof on any of the removal charges in this case. However, this is only the initial phase of the case, and we will continue to vigorously defend our client’s right to lawful immigration status, along with his constitutional right to free speech and due process under the law,” said Kathryn Brady, MLFA Immigration Litigation Director and a member of Mr. Sarsour’s legal team.
Sarsour now awaits Judge Jayme Salinardi’s decision about whether the government has established any of its removal charges before September 30th at 8:30AM CT, when there will be a status hearing. When Judge Salindardi, a DOJ administrative judge who hears cases from the Kansas City Immigration Court under the purview of the executive branch, was specially selected to oversee this case, he was one of the Acting Regional Deputy Chief Immigration Judges within the immigration system. He was assigned to hear this case despite the typical procedure that would have randomly assigned it to a judge in the Chicago Immigration Court where DHS initiated removal proceedings. The legal team has noted in its legal briefs the heightened risk of political pressure present in this case decision as a result of these Executive Branch policies. Notably, the federal rules of procedure are not mandatory in immigration courts, and the Trump administration has fired over 100 immigration judges who failed to acquiesce to the administration’s agenda to severely limit immigrants’ due process rights.
For more information on the previous hearings, see this fact sheet.
About Salah: Salah Sarsour is a successful small business owner, community leader, father of six, and caretaker for his elderly mother. Salah Sarsour was arrested on March 30, 2026 because of his advocacy for Palestinian rights; he is one of many Palestinian Americans permanent residents who have been targeted by the Trump Administration for speaking out against the genocide of the Palestinian people. He is an active member of his community, serving as the elected volunteer President of the largest mosque in Wisconsin, the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, and on the board of American Muslims for Palestine, an educational organization focused on Palestinian human rights. On March 30th, he was surrounded by over 10 ICE vehicles and taken out of state to an ICE facility in Indiana.
CONTACT: [email protected]
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Salah Sarsour is represented by Grossman, Young & Hammond in his immigration case. He is represented by the ACLU of Illinois and Beldock Levine & Hoffman in his federal case. His larger legal team includes the Muslim Legal Fund of America as co-counsel.