Deportation Hearings Begin for Milwaukee Muslim Leader Who Lied on His Visa Application

Salah Salem Sarsour is a Jordanian citizen, now resident in the United States. He is also the  president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. The government wishes to deport him because he lied on his immigration forms, failing to disclose his conviction in Israel for terrorist acts, including throwing Molotov cocktails at the houses of Israeli soldiers. He was taken into custody in March, and has been fighting deportation hearings ever since. The government also charges Sarsour with supporting foreign terror groups while in this country. In late June, a federal judge has ordered him to be released from custody while he continues to contest his deportation. Several days ago, his deportation hearing began. More on this alarming case can be found here: “Man detained by ICE believes his advocacy for Palestinian rights made him a target,” by Leila Fadel, NPR, July 21, 2026:

NPR’s Leila Fadel talks with Salah Sarsour, who was detained by ICE and later released after a federal judge found he had a “substantial” First Amendment retaliation claim….

FADEL: Last month, a Trump-appointed federal judge ordered Sarsour’s release. The judge said Sarsour had raised a, quote, “substantial” First Amendment retaliation claim, and that Sarsour’s speech on Palestinian rights is protected.

SARSOUR: He gave me hope in the system. This judge make me feel, wait a minute, there’s still righteous people. There are still fair people here in the system.

How, one wonders, does the First Amendment enter into this case? Sarsour lied on his immigration papers. Has lying become protected speech? Or does U.S. District Judge James P. Hanlon see this attempt to deport him only as a way for the government to punish Sarsour for his support — mainly financing — for jihad terror groups, which the judge believes is protected speech under the First Amendment? Many constitutional legal authorities do not consider support for terror groups to be protected speech. Of course, these are two independent reasons to deport him. First, for lying to the government about his previous arrest in Israel for a terror-related offense (those Molotov cocktails he threw at the houses of IDF soldiers). Second, for whatever activities he has engaged in during his time in the U.S. that, the government can argue, provide support for terrorism. That is not protected speech.

Judge Hanlon thinks that the government’s failure to act against Sarsour over the past 25 years undermines its right, now, to deport him. Past failures by the government to act against him do not, however, justify preventing the government from at long last taking action.

The government should perhaps have stuck to its original charge: Sarsour lied on his immigration papers, and he deserves for that reason alone to be deported. By bringing up his pro-Palestinian activities, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has provided the judge with the argument that the government is punishing him for his exercise of free speech. However, I think that in the end, the government will provide convincing evidence of Sarsour’s continuing support — most likely financing — for terror groups in the Middle East, while he has been in this country, and that will be an independent reason for deporting him.

In the deportation hearings, Sarsour’s defense team has made the same argument: “Deportation hearing begins for Milwaukee Muslim leader Salah Sarsour,” by Anya van Wagtendonk, Wisconsin Public Radio, July 22, 2026:

“Why should people care about this case? Because targeting Mr. Sarsour is all about sending a signal, not to speak up for Palestinian rights,” said Patrick Taurel, Sarsour’s lead immigration attorney.

Sarsour was incarcerated in Israeli prisons twice, once as a teenager in the late 1980s, and again at the age of 22 in 1994, after he had been approved for a visa and moved to the United States. His team alleges that he returned to visit family, was arrested trying to return to America, and tortured during that detention. They said he was forced to sign documents confessing to crimes he didn’t understand.

Sarsour was granted a green card in 1998.

The deportation proceedings continue. And either his immigration fraud, or his support for terrorism, or both, should be enough to lead to the consummation devoutly to be wished. That is, with Salah Salem Sarsour soon winging his way back to Amman.