ICE detains Milwaukee mosque leader over past conviction

Summary

Federal authorities detained a Milwaukee mosque leader, alleging he hid a past Israeli conviction on immigration forms.

Why this matters

The case centers on whether a lawful permanent resident can be detained and potentially removed based on allegations of fraud in the immigration process. It also has drawn public response from religious leaders and immigrant advocates in Wisconsin.

Federal immigration authorities detained the president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque, alleging he concealed a past conviction involving attacks on Israeli targets and lied on his U.S. immigration application.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Salah Salem Sarsour, a leader of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, in a targeted operation earlier this week, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In a statement released Thursday, DHS said Sarsour is a Jordanian national who was convicted in Israel of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the homes of Israeli armed forces and attempting to possess weapons and ammunition. The agency alleged he did not disclose that history on immigration forms and improperly obtained lawful permanent resident status in the United States.

According to ICE, Sarsour became a green card holder in 1998 during the Clinton administration after lying on his application. ICE told FOX 6 Milwaukee it worked with the U.S. Marshals Service to arrest him.

The Islamic Society of Milwaukee created a fundraising page to support Sarsour.

“Br. Salah is being targeted on the basis of his Palestinian and Muslim background, and his advocacy for Palestinian rights,” the fundraiser says, in part. “We know this fight for Br. Salah is part of a larger trend of attacks on immigrants that whittle away at democratic norms and legal protections for everyone. That is why this fight is a fight for all of us.”

Sarsour has been board president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the state’s largest Islamic organization, for five years.

“He was targeted because of one thing, because he dared stand up to the Israeli army,” one of Sarsour’s attorneys, Othman Atta, told a crowd. “And he was not a U.S. citizen.”

“This appears to be just the latest example of how this administration seeks to silence opposition and intimidate those who speak and act differently,” said the Rev. Paul D. Erickson, bishop of the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

“He is a legal permanent resident. There is no substantive evidence he has done anything wrong,” Johnson said Thursday in a post on X. “This is another example of overreach and harm from the U.S. immigration authorities.”

Sarsour was being held at a county jail in Indiana. His attorneys filed a petition seeking his release.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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