ICE arrested Salah Sarsour, the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, back in April. Sarsour has deep ties to Hamas and was a board member of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).
What local media didn't tell you at the time is that Sarsour has a rap sheet going back to the 1990s. In 1995, Sarsour was jailed for eight months in Israel for supporting Hamas. He was named in FBI memos as a Hamas fundraiser tied to the Holy Land Foundation, the biggest terror-financing conviction in U.S. history. His brother admitted that the Sarsour family used their furniture business to funnel cash to Hamas operatives, and AMP was exposed as a rebranded Hamas support pipeline.
The government said Sarsour lied about his history on his green card application.
Wisconsin Democrats backed Sarsour and demanded his release. But that's not going to happen. A court has ruled that the Trump administration can deport Sarsour on national security grounds.
#BREAKING: Immigration judge allows DHS to deport the Islamic Society of Milwaukee's president.
— Insider Wire (@InsiderWire) September 30, 2026
The U.S. can deport the leader of Wisconsin’s largest mosque — an outspoken advocate of Palestinian rights — on the grounds that he is a threat to national security, an immigration judge ruled Wednesday.
Salah Sarsour was detained in Milwaukee in March by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. A federal judge ordered Sarsour’s release in June, saying he raised a “substantial” claim that the Trump administration was targeting him for speaking out against Israel and advocating for Palestinian rights.
Sarsour called the ruling “deeply disappointing,” but said he intends to appeal.
“I will continue fighting to defend the right to free speech and to stay in the country I have called home for more than three decades,” Sarsour said in a statement.
Government attorneys say Sarsour’s decades-old convictions in Israel make him a threat to national security and accuse him of lying on his green card application. Judge Jayme Salinardi, with the Chicago Immigration Court, found him removable on foreign-policy grounds but tossed out the government’s claim that Sarsour lied to immigration authorities.
Deport them all.
https://t.co/Bn6cOKAvNl pic.twitter.com/dEUVQTOCjL
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) September 30, 2026
Despite his ties to terrorism and his lying on his green card application, Democrat David Crowley defended Sarsour.
Salah Sarsour has been our neighbor in Milwaukee for more than 30 years. He's here legally and has no criminal record in this country, and today the Trump administration moved one step closer to taking him away from the home he's built here for speaking his mind and exercising…
— David Crowley (@DavidCCrowley) September 30, 2026
"I stood with Salah in April and I stand with him now, because if the government can come after someone for what they believe, it can come after any of us. Tom Tiffany has chosen to stand with Trump every step of the way, and as governor, I'll stand with the people of Wisconsin," Crowley wrote on X.
Simply incredible. There's an ad for you, WisGOP.
LMFAO.
— Wisco_Knight (@Wisco__Knight) September 30, 2026
At best he's an Islamic terrorist sympathizer and at worst he's an Islamic terrorist but please, keep doubling down on criminals Davey.
This'll play well in rural Wisconsin.
What Crowley doesn’t mention in this post is that Mr. Sarsour was convicted of throwing a Molotov Cocktail at Jews. https://t.co/ujbXJgGg3Z
— Eric Bott (@EricJBott) October 1, 2026
Crowley doesn't seem to care.
You do not have a right to be in America, especially if you have ties to terrorists and lied on your green card application. Salah Sarsour deserves to be deported and he should be.